Screamers In The Night
by garden-nomes
Summary: When the world is laid waste by unknown creatures, Naomi Campbell finds herself thrown together with a scared girl. Can they make sense of this brave new world? Rated M for language/other stuff.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello! I know, I know... Another story, when I have almost more than can be counted on both hands unfinished? I must be a little mad. Possibly.**

**Anyway... This is experimental in nature. Not as experimental as TSLOEF or TAONC, because this is intended as scifi/post-apocalyptica, as opposed to D/s smut. Hahaha... All I can say is, expect violence, expect destruction, and expect Naomily (of course).**

**I've never written this genre before, so there's a very good chance it might totally suck...but you can be the judge.**

**Right then, on with it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Boo. Any and all typos are accidental.**

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**(Naomi POV)**

There weren't too many people left alive who could tell you what life was like before the invasion. All records that existed before the days when the creatures came... they had been destroyed by the tall-walking things that obliterated everything within their sight that didn't stand up against their weaponry. Most things built in the twentieth century didn't stand a chance. Too much pre-fabrication, you see. Concrete disintegrated easily, but stone... That stood a better chance. What remained after the initial attacks that occurred all over the planet was anything that had been built pre-1900. This meant, of course, that a good percentage of countries that weren't part of Europe or the Middle East were, essentially, toasted into dust. Some parts of the US remained, mostly around Washington and the older cities that were first colonised there.

Indeed, the rest of the world hadn't seen such rubble since some of the major cities in Europe at the end of the Second World War. And even they had been reduced to that state, seeing as all the modern architecture built since the Nazis and the allies went at it didn't hold up to the attacks.

No one knew what was going on, at first. The missiles that came from the sky... It all happened so quickly and so simultaneously that people thought it was a carefully constructed, massive act of terrorism. It wasn't until reports circulated around what was left of the internet that the face of a creature had appeared in Times Square, New York, with a garbled voice, screeching in an indecipherable language that wasn't translated in full until years later, that the world knew it was fucked.

No one knew where they came from. There wasn't a delegation that said "we come in peace." No... Only a massive ship that landed over a desert in America, that opened its gangway, spilling out a legion of no less than one million creatures, tall and wiry, with gangly limbs and hollow eyes. Faces looking somewhat like an old painting, twisted into shock. "The Scream", I think it was called. I've never seen it, myself, and it doesn't exist anymore, having been destroyed long ago. However, the name stuck, and Screamers they came to be known as. We didn't know their real names, and not many of us seemed to care. All that became relevant was survival, in the rubble of a past long gone to us.

To survive... You had to get out of the city. That much was apparent. What wasn't reduced to rubble was taken over by the creatures, the only stable buildings left overtaken by a substance that gave them an overgrown look, much like tree roots in abandoned ruins of temples in far off Asian countries that I had heard about in my youth. The world may have been a vast place, but like I said, anywhere that was previously populated was good and fucked over by these things. The fact that their weaponry had less of an effect against older buildings became quick knowledge to those who weren't immediately disintegrated in their path. And it wasn't just a few hundred thousand, either. More than half the world's population was destroyed within the first week of their arrival. Half of what remained slowly dwindled over the next few years, and it was only the smarter ones of us who quickly realised we had to get the hell out survived.

Long gone were the days where I went to college by day, and smoked spliff and drank while clubbing with my friends at night. All of that was a distant memory, now. The world was cold, dark and grey. We realised early on that these creatures, the Screamers, hibernated by day, and were active at night. The fact that they were nocturnal was a bonus, in some ways. The first attacks came at night, in which the majority of a lot of major capital cities were obliterated within an hour. New York. Los Angeles. Beijing. Sydney. London. Paris. Oh, beautiful Paris. I'd been there once, as a little girl. To the top of the Eiffel Tower to see the view. That particular monument had barely withstood the attacks, and only half of it remained. And the Arc De Triomphe? A huge chunk of it was missing, as though someone had taken a large axe to it.

When I say older buildings survived... The ones that did only did so marginally. You could tell they had been attacked. Superficial gouges in stone that went no further. Twisted, melted metal that refused to disintegrate completely. The White House didn't even live up to that name anymore, having become a burnt out shell, the windows having shattered after the attempted disintegration caused a rapid fire to sweep through it. But most twentieth century landmarks? Nope. The Golden Gate Bridge had been spliced in two by a massive disintegration ray, causing the cars travelling over it at the time to fall and sink into the bay below. I've heard of how people used to commit suicide by jumping off the bridge... But I doubt that was the intention of anyone driving across it that night. The Empire State Building? Rubble.

I was twenty when the attack on London happened. I'd been out drinking with my best friend. It was just like any other normal night. We'd stopped along the Thames to get some fresh air, and then... It was as though the sky had lit up. A series of massive streaks of light that came from above, and pulsed their way into the central business district, accompanied by a noise that can only be described as a low howling, mixed in with the odd shriek here and there. The two of us stood there completely shocked for a few moments, knowing that something terrible had just happened.

I looked over at her, and she was just staring at the buildings that were collapsing over the other side of the river. Her lips were moving, but I couldn't hear what she was saying, if anything. "Eff?" I asked, nervously, as I touched her shoulder. Her head snapped towards me, and it registered the fear in her expression.

"Something is very, very wrong." She muttered.

I looked back across the river at the cloud of dust that was blooming where several skyscrapers used to be. I hoped, for a single second, that no one had been working late. I say a single second, because another pulse of light came from above, and fired into the building directly opposite us, which was the Palace of Westminster. The two of us watched in horror as the building glowed, bright like the sun, hearing the windows shattering into splinters. Then, the awful groaning as the building resisted its own destruction. The pulse of light stopped, and still the building glowed, red hot, and slowly dissipating.

"We have to get out of here!" Effy blurted, tugging on my hand as I watched in shock. "NOW, Naomi!"

So, we ran. It was a good thing we did, because things began to explode all around us. The Westminster bridge across the river? Gone. The London eye? Disintegrated to dust a few minutes later. And I will never forget the sound of the bells of Big Ben chiming in agony before they were silenced forever. It was almost in a mournful way. Somehow, Effy had more of a sense of survival than I did, and led us down some stairs into the nearest tube station, following several other people who had the same idea she did. The lighting still worked, how I don't know with all the destruction going on around us.

"Everybody inside!" A sandy haired young man in a railways uniform yelled, as a few stragglers made it inside, and he slammed the gates shut, locking them tight and quickly wrapping a chain around where they met, for what good it would do. He then slid shut a large, heavy glass door, the kind that had that security glass with the wire through it., also locking it tight. The opaque form of his body barrelled down the stairs as a bright white light emanated behind him. There was that horrible groaning sound again, and we all watched the barely muted brightness of the white glowing behind him, as he shouted loudly. "EVERYONE INTO THE TUNNELS, QUICKLY! TAKE COVER!"

One by one we filed into the tunnels, and Effy and I huddled close as the sound of breaking glass reverberated through the air around us, and half molten shattered glass sprayed across the platform.

And after that... Everything went dark, and a collective scream of shock sounded as the platform was flooded in darkness.

Total pitch black. That's all I saw. I felt a hand sliding down my arm, sending a shiver of panic up my spine. My fear was somehow allayed, though, as its fingers intertwined in mine and gripped tightly. The hand was trembling as it held mine, and I gripped back, my intention to calm it, I'm not sure. The sound of scared breathing and concerned murmurs echoed around us, and suddenly a torchlight illuminated the tunnel.

"Is everyone alright?" The railway man asked, scanning the area with his torch, to general positive answers. "Seriously, is anyone hurt?"

"I think some of the glass got me. My arm hurts." Someone close to the platform piped up.

"Alright." He said. "Stay here, yeah? I won't be a minute, I'm going to the stationmaster's office to get a first aid kit."

"Hang on, where is this office of yours?" I asked.

"At the end of the platform." He replied, shining his light towards the long stretch of darkness. The light barely lit up the small neatly painted sign that read "STATIONMASTER."

"Oh, right. Need a hand?"

"If you're offering." He said, climbing up onto the platform to the best of his ability. I went to make my way through the crowd, but was stopped by the hand that held mine.

"Please...don't. I'm scared." A small, husky female voice to my right whispered.

"Eff?"

"That's not me." Effy's voice to my left said. "Go, take her with you, if she's afraid. I'll be ok."

I turned to the darkness to my right. "Will you come?"

"Uhm...o-ok." Came the timid reply. I led her to the platform where the railway man stood, shining his light on the edge of the platform so that we could see it.

"Here, take my hand." He said, holding it out to me. I took it and he helped me up onto the platform, doing the same with the girl who came with me. "Follow me."

We followed him to the office door, and he opened it, placing the torch light side up on the table by the door so the light shone on the ceiling, illuminating the room in a soft glow. He went over to a cabinet with a Red Cross symbol on it, and inserted a key into the lock. The metal door swung open to reveal some basic first aid supplies.

"What's happening?" The timid voice asked. I turned to look, now there was a little more light, and saw a short, petite woman standing next to me. She had shoulder length hair, which looked to be red in the soft light, and from what I could tell, she had brown eyes. Brown terrified eyes.

"Search me, love." The man said, in his Yorkshire accent. "All I know is, it ain't good."

"Have you...been in the station all night, Mr...uhm..." I asked.

"Cook, James Cook. And yes. About half an hour ago, the trains stopped working. Then, the radios went silent. And then... The people." He explained. "They just started flooding into the station, even though I told them the trains were out. Some of them weren't making any sense, talking about bright lights and buildings being destroyed. I just figured they were joking, or being a Friday night they'd taken some drugs or something."

I frowned, and shook my head. The redhead looked at me and squeezed my hand, which she hadn't let go of since taking hold of it again after Cook I had hoisted us onto the platform. "They weren't joking Mr Cook."

"Please, just Cook, yeah? I'm only a railway man, I'm not that important." He said. "But you... you look like you've a story to tell, Blondie."

I nodded. "My friend and I were getting some air along the Thames... Across from parliament? Some bright lights came from the sky... Whatever it was attacked the central business district. And then... It hit the Palace of Westminster."

"It?"

"I don't know what it was. It wasn't a bomb, that's for sure." I said. "The whole palace lit up like a Christmas tree, and the windows shattered. The skyscrapers, they collapsed, but... The palace... it just glowed. Then the light stopped from above, and the building just kept glowing. Then me and Effy - that's my friend - started running. We ran into the tube station and... Well, you know the rest." I looked up and watched both Cook and the redheaded girl looking at me in shock. "Uhm... I'm Naomi, by the way."

"D'you think it's terrorists?" The redhead asked.

I shrugged. "I'm not sure, sorry. All I know is what I saw, and it didn't look good."

Her hand covered her mouth, and she turned around, stifling a sob. It tugged at me, and I took her into my arms and hugged her. It seemed like the right thing to do.

"I'm sorry." She sniffled. "You must think I'm a right twat for crying."

"No, not at all. I think we're all in a bit of shock. We don't even kno-" I stopped mid sentence as we heard a deafeningly dull thud from above us, followed by several more. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. These sounds were followed by a commotion outside in the tunnel, and Cook grabbed the first aid kit and also looked in another cupboard, pulling out a three old style kerosene lanterns. He reached into his pocket and checked each lantern for fuel, lighting them one by one.

"Here, take one each. I think it's going to be along night, girls." He said, picking up one lantern, and the aid kit and leading us out of the office.

"Hey..." I said to the redhead, who had grabbed my hand again. "What's your name?"

"E-Emily."

"Ok. Good to put a name to the hand gripping mine for dear life." I said, putting a little humour in my tone.

"Sorry." She laughed nervously, making to loosen her grip.

I tightened it immediately. "Hey, I wasn't complaining, yeah? Don't worry about it, you seem to need it right now, so I don't mind."

She looked at me with amazement in her eyes, and nodded. "Thank you." She said, her voice shy.

"We stick together, yeah?" I said. "We'll be ok."

"I'm not so sure of that..." She said, quietly.

"I'll be honest, neither am I. But optimism is far better than pessimism, under the circumstances."

"You mean hope?" I nodded. She lowered her head. "I'm scared, Naomi."

I swallowed. "So am I, Emily." I said softly. "So am I."

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**A/N#2: Well, what do you think? A little bit too war of the worlds? (God, I hope not.)**

**Let me know if you want to read more of it, and I'll see what I can do. Can't promise it will be quick, though... I'm working on more of The Awakening of Naomi Campbell, so... I'm also endeavouring to re-read through some of my neglected stories so I can pick them up, because I know some of you are eager to read more of them.**

**Reviews welcome, as always.**

**Cheers,**

**~GN~ xo**


	2. To Southwark, Then

**A/N: Greetings!**

**Guessing this is a goer, then. Cheers for your reviews, even the one I got in Spanish! Gave me an excuse to use my translator app lol**

**Part two... More has been requested, and so more shall be delivered!**

**On with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Bummer. All your typos are belong to us.**

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**(Naomi POV)**

An hour later, I'd enlisted Effy's help to take a head count of the number of people who were in the tunnel with us. Cook, the railway man, asked that we all get off the tracks, just on the off chance that the trains started working again, so no one would get run over. He then tended to those who were wounded, and Emily and I gave him a hand as best as we could. After he did that, I took him aside.

"Is there any chance that would happen?" I asked him, quietly. "The trains running, I mean."

"Search me, Naomi. I'm just being cautious. I really don't know what's going on anymore than anyone else does." He replied.

"Fair enough." I said.

Effy came towards us. "There's one hundred and fifty of us here." She said, keeping her voice low. "And... Some of them are really terrified."

"Yeah, well... Seeing the Houses of Parliament glowing like a hot ember wasn't exactly uplifting." I muttered.

"People have seen worse than that, Naomi. See that boy over there?" She asked me, pointing to an African boy sitting on the end of a bench with a few other people standing around him. I nodded. "Go and talk to him. You might want to hear what he has to say."

I looked over at Emily who was standing close to me once more, and she gave me a look of scared concern. I looked back to Cook. "Alright."

"I'm coming too." Emily said, quietly, walking with me as I made my way through the crowd. The boy sat still, his elbows on his knees, though his hands were trembling as he held a bottle of water that he had got from the vending machine that someone had managed to break into.

"Hello?" I said, softly. He looked up at me with eyes that were dark, and looked about as terrified as any of the other pairs of eyes that were down here with us. "I'm Naomi, and this is Emily." I said, motioning to the redhead beside me.

"Thomas." He said, a gentle but scared French accent flavouring his voice. "Usually I say I am so glad to meet you, but under the circumstances..."

I waved him off as I kneeled down. "I understand, Thomas. My friend who did the head count... She says you have something I might want to hear?"

Thomas looked around, noting the number of people that were standing around us. "Oui, but...not here, yes? Somewhere more private, perhaps."

I nodded, standing and picking up the kerosene lamp that I still had with me. "Very well... Follow me." I led the two of them back into the stationmaster's office and closed the door behind us, placing the lamp on the table.

Thomas pulled the chair out from the desk and sat down taking another drink from his water bottle. "I was out with some friends tonight. We were at a nightclub not far from here. The music was loud, so the walls, they were reverberating, you know?"

"Yeah, I was out with a friend, much the same." I said.

"Me too. I was out with my sister." Emily said, her voice still so quiet. Her expression changed to one of pain. Again, it tugged at me, but first I needed to hear what Thomas had to say.

"Go on, Thomas."

"Everything seemed normal, until the lights started to go out. One exploded in a shower of sparks, and people screamed. I've seen it happen in a club before, and they just turn the light off and don't use it. But then... The sound system went out. We heard this horrible banging sound. Like... Explosions. And then... The lights started to come down from the ceiling. One came down about ten feet away from me. Then..." He paused, swallowing. "One of them hit one of my friends, killing him."

Emily gasped. "That's awful. I'm sorry."

Thomas smiled weakly. "Thank you." He said. "Anyway... We all started to move out of the club, some of us more orderly than others. People were pushing, shoving and screaming for help. As I left the club, we all stopped. There was this awful sound around us...like...groaning. Almost a wailing sound. Some people wouldn't have known the difference. Clubbers on drugs, you know?"

"Yeah..." I said quietly.

"Then the buildings around us began to be destroyed. The glass shattered. The walls, they just...crumbled into rubble around us. We started to run, not knowing where we were going, really. I ran across the park up the road from the tube station and stopped, looking behind me for my other friend. That's when I saw the creatures."

"The...creatures?" Emily asked.

"I-I don't know what they are. They don't look like they come from this earth. I've seen some destruction in my time, but... Nothing like this."

"Where are you from, Thomas? Obviously not London." I asked.

"Africa. Congo. My mother sent me to England after rebel fighting got too close to our village. She took the rest of my family to another country...Gabon, Cameroon maybe."

"You don't know?" Emily asked.

"That was six months ago. I've not heard from them since." He said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's not like those places have fantastic phone services."

"I understand."

"All I could do was live my life and pray that they were alright." Thomas continued. "But if what's happened here tonight is happening in other places..."

We all fell silent as Thomas's words hung in the air between us. A silence that was only broken by more dull thudding coming from the surface above our heads.

"Jesus." Emily whispered, in a scared tone.

I looked over at her. "You said you were out with your sister?"

She nodded. "Yeah." She said, sadly. "Thomas, I think you and I were in the same club. When everything started, she screamed at me that we had to get out. I lost track of her after I left the club and the buildings we crumbling. I just turned my back for a second and..." She said, her voice choked up with emotion. "She was gone." She added weakly, wobbling on the last three words. "I don't know if she's alive, and I've got no fucking phone service, and I'm really, _really_ scared, Naomi." Tears began to fall from her eyes, and I stepped closer to her, pulling her into my arms as she burst into tears.

"Shhh..." I said softly, rubbing my hand up and down her back. I looked towards Thomas. "Do you have service on your mobile?"

He shook his head. "No. I have already tried to call my friends. No signal."

I frowned. "Yeah, same."

"What do we do?" Emily sniffled.

"I wish I had an answer, Emily. But I really don't know." I said. She closed her eyes and her brow furrowed. "I don't think it's wise to go above ground right now."

"I agree." Said Thomas.

"Well we have to do something!" Emily said, strain in her voice.

I thought for a moment. Then, the door opened, and Cook came in to the office. "Everything alright?" He asked.

"Cook... This is Thomas."

"Pleased to meet you, mate." Cook said. "What's goin' on?"

"Thomas was telling us about his experience." Emily said.

Cook listened while Thomas related his story. Emily also told Cook about her sister.

"Well, fuck me. Creatures, you say?"

"Yes, sir."

Cook waved him off. "Don't call me sir, I only work the railways, I'm not important." He said. "These creatures...what did they look like?"

"Tall. Sunken eyes. Emaciated, I think. Long limbs... Clumsy, but deadly."

"Deadly?"

Thomas nodded. "They shoot something from their hands."

"What, like fire?" I asked.

"It was not fire that I saw. It was...light? It didn't burn things...it disintegrated them."

I nodded. "I saw something similar at the Palace."

"Buckingham Palace?" Thomas asked.

"No, the Palace of Westminster. Houses of Parliament."

"Oh. Of course. It is a little far from here, no?"

"A little, yeah." Cook said.

"We were wondering...what do we do now?" Emily asked.

Cook shrugged and shook his head. "Search me, love." He said. "I really don't know."

"What's the next station down the line?" I asked.

"This is Waterloo station. Southwark is one way, Westminster the other."

I sighed. "And you've heard nothing over the radio?"

Cook shook his head. "It's been dead since not long after the trains went out."

I checked my phone for the time. "So, we've been under here an hour now... When was the last train through here?"

"Last one was the ten thirty four going towards Westminster."

"And it's now after midnight." Emily said, softly.

I sighed. "I'm guessing there are more in similar strife." I said. "Someone should go towards Southwark...and see."

"Well, I can't go. I should stay behind with everyone here." Cook said.

"Probably the best decision." Emily said.

"I'll go." I said. I looked over at Emily. "Uhm...do you..."

She nodded. "I'll come. I think I'll go crazy wondering, otherwise."

Cook looked at us both with concern. "You'd better take the lamp, then. And, erm..." He looked around the office briefly and opened a cupboard, pulling out a broom. He unscrewed the brush and, taking a pocket knife from his pocket, produced a saw blade and sawed the broom handle in half. "Just in case." He said, handing one half to me and the other to Emily.

"I will come to." Thomas said, standing up.

Cook handed me a short looking metal stub hanging on a chain. "Universal key. If you get there and there's no one around, you'll be able to use that to get into the stationmaster's office there. I'm not sure how long the lamps will hold out, but there should be some emergency ones in the cupboard there."

"Ok."

"If there are trains running, and you see or hear one coming... Get off the tracks immediately... There's alcoves every ten metres or so... Run as fast as you can to the nearest one and wait for the train to pass." He explained. "The station isn't too far, but walking... Well, who knows how long it takes when the train takes less than five minutes."

"Right." I said. "We'll be as quick as we can."

Cook held out his hand. "Good luck, Naomi."

I took his hand and shook it. "Thanks." I replied. "Oh... Do you have a satchel, or something?"

"Erm, should do, yeah..." He said, looking in the cupboard. He pulled out a battered looking medical satchel with a red cross printed on it. "Here." He said, handing it to me. I handed it to Emily and she slung it over her body.

"Thomas, can you go get another couple of bottles of water from where you got that one?"

"Of course. Someone broke into the vending machine on the platform. I will go and see if there are any bottles left." He said, before leaving the office.

Effy poked her head into the office. "Naoms?"

"Eff. Emily, Thomas and I are going to walk down the line to the next station."

"Oh, right." She said, eyeing Emily up and down. "I might stay here and give Cook a hand if he needs it, then."

"That would be much appreciated, love." Cook said.

"There are a few people with some interesting stories out there." Effy said. "Some along the lines of what we saw."

I nodded. "Yeah, Thomas told us one, too. I think it's pretty bad, Eff."

"I agree. I can't get reception on my-"

"None of us can." Emily and I said, in unison. Effy smirked at me.

Cook walked to the phone on the desk and picked up the receiver, holding it to his ear. He frowned and shook his head, replacing the receiver in the cradle. "Nothing."

"Christ." Emily muttered. She closed her eyes briefly and then wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket.

"Hey...are you going to be ok?" I asked, concerned.

Emily gave me a weak smile and nodded. "Yeah. It's better if I come. Otherwise I'll just think the worst."

"The worst?" Effy asked.

"Emily was separated from her sister when they fled a nightclub."

"Oh." Effy replied. "I'm sorry to hear that." Emily nodded, as another sniffle came from her. "Hey...she might be ok... She might have made it to another station. Hell, we can keep an eye out for her...what does she look like?"

Emily looked up at us with big, brown, sad eyes. "Just like me. She's my twin. Her name is Katie. Katie Fitch. She's wearing black jeans and a godawful leopard print jacket. She's dressed a bit like a slag, actually, but..." She said, sadly. She closed her eyes again and exhaled a shaky breath. "Look...can we just...get going? I'll be better once my mind is occupied."

"Good plan." I said. I was trying like hell not to worry about my mum who wasn't even in London. But if this was happening here, what about other places?

Thomas reappeared in the door. "I got us a bottle of water each. And...snacks. Just in case."

Emily took them from him and placed them all into the satchel.

"Right... I guess we will be off, then." I said. "We'll be back as soon as possible."

Effy nodded. "Look after yourself."

"Will do. You too, yeah?" I said, giving my best friend a hug. "Come on, you two..."

I felt Emily's hand grip onto mine tightly as we left the office. I gripped it back, and Cook showed us to a gate that separated the platform from a small area that had steps that led onto the tracks. "Straight down that way. You'll know when you get there. Good luck."

"Cheers. See you later, then." I said, and we set off on our way.

* * *

It was eerily quiet in the tunnel, pitch dark, not even the emergency lighting was running. All that we could hear was a faint whistling sound, feeling a cold breeze around us. About ten minutes into our walk, we came upon a train. Its lights were still on, but it was abandoned with not a single soul on it.

"They must have evacuated." I said.

"Where did they go? We didn't see anyone come to Waterloo from this direction..." Emily said.

"They must've gone to Southwark, perhaps?" Thomas added.

"They must have." I said. I started to climb the ladder on the side of the train. "I'm just going to check and see if there's anything in here."

I walked through the train, and it was just as eerily as the tunnel. Not a single person was left on it, just some bits of rubbish, a few discarded newspapers and such. The only item of interest that was left behind was a faux leather purse that had a leopard print pattern on it. It piqued my interest, because Emily had mentioned something about leopard print when Effy asked about her sister. I picked up the purse and opened it, almost dropping it when I saw a driver's license reflected back at me. The girl in the picture looked almost identical to Emily. And the name of Katie Fitch was staring at me, in official print. I did a quick search of the rest of the train and found nothing, walking back to where I had got on and climbing down out of the carriage.

"You found something?" Thomas said, looking at the purse in my hand.

"Uhm...yeah." I said, my eyes drifting to Emily, who was staring at my hands in shock. I held the purse out to her, and gave her my best apologetic look. "This was on the train."

Emily held a trembling hand out to me and gripped the purse in her fingers. She held it in her hands and looked down at it. "It was our birthday a few months ago. We'd both just turned twenty. I gave this to her as a gift."

"How do you-"

"The keyring on it." Emily said, cutting Thomas off. She held it between her fingers. It was a silver K, studded with red gemstones. "K for Katie." She said, carefully opening the purse. She closed her eyes and scrunched up her nose in anguish when her eyes fell on the license. "Oh, no..." She said, a wobble in her tone. I stepped towards her and took her into my arms as she started to sob once more. "Not my sister!" She cried.

"Shhh... Emily..." I said, softly. "Listen to me." I waited for her to calm down a little, again rubbing her back to comfort her. "We don't know, yeah? For all we know, she made it to the station and she's safe, ok? You have to try and think positive."

"How do you know? Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Emily sobbed, her voice sounding more distraught.

I shook my head. "No. But I have a mother who lives in Bristol. I don't know if she's alive or dead, and can't even call to check on her. But I'm hoping she's alright, because other than my best friend, she's really all I have." I explained. "One thing at a time, yeah? Let's just get to the station, and then we figure out what comes next, ok?"

Emily swallowed another sob and sniffled once more. "O-ok."

We continued on, through the dark tunnel. Soon enough, we saw light up ahead, and reached Southwark station. It was still properly lit, but it was deserted. There was an awful smell, though. Burning. Something burnt. I looked to my left and saw a burning pile of something that almost made me sick to my stomach.

Corpses.

I turned to Emily and stood between her and the sight I had just seen. "Don't look. Trust me... You _don't_ want to look."

Emily eyed me nervously. "What is it?"

"_Merde, alors!_" Thomas said.

Before I could stop her, Emily got around me, and her eyes widened in horror.

"Oh, my... Oh, _Christ!_" She sobbed, as she nestled into my chest. I held her close to me and let her cry a little, before I wondered if anyone else was here, or whether we were the only people alive here.

I looked around. "HELLO?! IS THERE ANYONE HERE?" I shouted, my voice echoing around the empty station. For a moment there was silence, until the stationmaster's office door opened.

"_Who's there?_" A male voice asked.

"We've come from Waterloo station!" I said, climbing the steps onto the platform. "My name is Naomi. The other two people are Thomas, and Emily. We don't mean you any harm, we are just trying to make sense of this."

A tall, lanky young man with floppy hair popped his head out of the doorway. "Good luck with that." He said. "Uhm... I'm Freddie." He said, giving us a small nervous wave. He turned back to the office. "It's ok... I don't think they mean us any harm."

"No, we don't." Thomas said.

A short woman stepped out of the office, talking in a gravelly sounding lisp. "Well, thank fuck for that, yeah? I've had about enough of bad surprises for one fucking night..."

Emily lifted her head off my chest and turned around. "_Katie!_" She exclaimed, bolting out of my arms and running towards the woman. I recognised her from Emily's description now that I had time to look. She was right she was dressed sort of slutty, but I suppose when some girls go on a night out, they don't expect to have to run for their lives.

"_EMILY!_ Oh my fucking god, there you are!" Katie replied, as the two sisters hugged for dear life. "Where did you go, you dozy cow, I told you to stay with me!"

"I turned around and you were gone! Oh, Katie, I thought I'd lost you!"

"Well, I lost my fucking purse, I think I left it on the bloody train."

Emily shook her head. "It was on the train, Naomi found it." She laughed, nervously.

"Naomi? Who's Naomi?"

"That would be me." I said, waving.

"_Oh._" Katie said, her voice showing a bit of disdain as she looked me up and down. "Christ, Ems, she dresses like a lesbian."

"OI!" I said.

"Katie, stop it. Now isn't the time." Emily said.

"Whatever. I tried to call you but I've got no phone service."

"No one has. Whatever has happened must have knocked out some mobile towers." I said. "Freddie... What happened with the..." I said, looking towards the corpses.

Freddie looked to the ground. "Erm... Not sure. They were here when we got here. Everyone else from the train kept walking up the line, but..."

"I wasn't walking _anywhere_ else in these heels. Three hundred quid they cost me, and I don't want them all shredded." Katie explained, matter-of-factly.

I rolled my eyes. "Right. Where's the stationmaster?" I asked. Freddie looked to the pile of corpses. "...Oh."

"The door was already open, so Katie and I just holed up in here." He shrugged, and exchanged a glance with the leopard printed twin. Katie had a slight look of guilt across her features.

Emily looked at her sister and shook her head. "Really, Katie?"

Katie blushed. "What?! Oh, don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same if you thought the world was ending?"

"Alright... This is rather irrelevant." I said calling the conversation to order. "We need to check the office for supplies. There are one hundred and fifty people at Waterloo who are going to need them." I explained. Freddie, see if you can get into those vending machines and get whatever you can carry out of it. Katie, go and help him."

"And who the fuck are you to be giving orders?" Katie asked, again looking me up and down.

"She's the one who has kept me together for the past two hours, so shut your trampy mouth and just_ fucking_ do it, Katie!" Emily said, angrily.

Katie glared at her twin, and then reluctantly followed Freddie to the vending machines.

I turned my attention to Thomas and Emily. "Right, we need to see what we can scrounge out of the office, and then make our way back to Waterloo." They both nodded, and as we filed into the office, we heard a loud, otherworldly groaning coming from overhead. I swallowed. "I think we'd best hurry up about it, too."

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**A/N#2: I actually spent an hour trying to figure out how long it would take to walk from Waterloo or Southwark station via the tube line and came up empty, so I just guessed. Never let it be said that Nomesy is a slacker for details lol!**

**More soon.**

**Review if you wish!**

**Until next time...**

**~GN~xo**


	3. Something Certainly Awful

**A/N: Cheers muchly for all your reviews and such... It's nice to know you are all enjoying this. ;-)**

**Chapter three, meant to finish and post this last night, but got distracted...haha.**

**On with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Seems I have an appetite for destruction, though... Any and all typos, yada yada yada, deal with it.**

* * *

**(Naomi POV)**

It didn't take long before Katie and Freddie had raided the vending machine for its stocks, after I'd found a crowbar in the stationmasters' store cupboard, and handed it to the lanky boy. I also found a blanket and some batteries, so I decided they were worth taking with us, too.

"Here, this'll help." I said, handing it to him. He went over to the machine and began to look for a way to get into it.

"Have experience breaking into stuff, do you?" Katie smirked.

"Not particularly." I replied.

"Could've fooled me." She scoffed.

I turned to her. "Look, I don't know you at all, and I don't know what your problem is with me, but could you kindly shut the fuck up? Something very bad has happened up there, and might still be happening." I said, looking upwards. "And I for one can do without your ego to piss me off."

She glared at me. "Just who the_ fuck_ do you think you are?" She spat. "Turning up here with a couple of bits of wood and throwing your butch attitude around?"

"Katie, I said stop it." Emily said, quietly. "Naomi's right, we don't know what's going on, and we don't need to be arguing amongst each other."

Katie turned to her sister. "Oh, you're on_ her_ side, then? I suppose Fitches no longer stick together now that the world is apparently going to shit!"

"Oh for fuck's sake, Katie! Can you stop thinking of yourself for five minutes?!" Emily said.

"How dare you speak to me like that!" The other twin replied. "Mum was right, you know, you are getting too sure of yourself-"

"And she's probably fucking_ DEAD_, Katie, just like dad and James!" Emily screamed, stunning them both into silence as the rest of us watched on. "Did you, or did you_ NOT_ notice what was going on up there, you selfish bitch? This is _SERIOUS!_"

"I think we all need to remain a little calm." Thomas said. "This isn't the time for fighting amongst each other."

"Thomas is right." I said. "And so is Emily. Whatever's going on is serious. Whatever is destroying the city_ isn't_ fucking around." We heard another series of loud groaning above our heads. "That_ sound_ is getting more frequent, whatever it is. So is the thumping."

"Alright, what the fuck do we do then, _smarty pants?_" Katie sneered. Emily rolled her eyes, and stepped forwards, raising her hand and slapping her twin across the face.

"_GROW UP!_ You're supposed to be the more_ mature_ one and you're behaving like a twat." She said, coldly.

I blinked. Wow, remind me never to piss Emily off...

Katie had a genuine look of shock on her face.

"_Right,_ if you're both finished?" I said, trying to stay calm. "We need to get back to Waterloo."

"_What?!_ I'm not walking back that way..."

"Well, then fucking _stay_ here!" I shouted, just as angrily as Emily. "Fend for yourself for all I care, and end up like those bloody _corpses!_" I said, pointing to the charred pile in the doorway of the station. "You're worried about your shoes being ruined?_ TOUGH SHIT_, it serves you right for spending three hundred_ fucking_ pounds on them! They're probably worth nothing now, anyway, because from what I saw tonight, I'd say that London is mostly fucked. So_ forget_ about it! Forget about your goddamn_ shoes_ and let's get walking!" I said, slinging the full satchel over my shoulders. I picked up the kerosene lantern and began walking towards the end of the platform, climbing down onto the tracks. I turned back to everyone who was still on the platform, staring at me in shock. "Or stay here and wait for whatever is up there to come and get you._ Your choice._" I shrugged, turning around and starting to walk.

It wasn't long before I heard footsteps other than my own scrunching the gravel in the eerie darkness around me. One pair, and then another...another...and another. I turned, to see Emily walking closest to me, Thomas a few paces behind her, and Katie and Freddie bringing up the rear. I shook my head and kept walking.

"Sorry about her." Emily said, nervously. "She's a bit self centred."

I cleared my throat gently. "I think I'll reserve my opinion. I don't want to offend you."

She kept silent for a few more metres, until she spoke again. "I meant what I said, you know? About you keeping me together."

"Yeah?" I replied, shrugging. "I just did what I thought was right. Nothing special." I was really glad Emily couldn't see me blushing in the near pitch darkness, only lit by the lamp.

"Well... I'm grateful, anyway, so... Thanks."

"You're welcome, I suppose." I said. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"You mentioned your parents... Where do they live?"

"Chiswick." Emily replied, the nervous wobble returning to her voice. "_Uhm_... You said your mum lives in Bristol?"

"Yes." I said. "Chiswick isn't too far from here, is it?"

Emily was silent for a few moments. "No... It_ isn't._" She said, quietly.

"Were you just trying to scare your sister into shutting up, then?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I think I scared myself even more with the thought."

"Oh?"

"Mum and dad were out tonight, too."

"Oh, I see." I said, reaching for her hand in the darkness. I squeezed it gently. "Have some hope, yeah? They might have made it back alright."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

The five of us remained mostly silent, as we navigated the tunnel past the abandoned train, and back to Waterloo. When we got there, it was _completely_ devoid of people, except for Effy and Cook, who were sitting on the edge of the platform, sharing a cigarette.

"What the...where did everybody _go?!_" I asked.

Effy stood up and crunched along the gravel towards us. "We tried to stop them, but... They were getting restless just sitting here. They decided to take their chances. Some went on towards Westminster, and the rest..." She explained, looking towards the stairs leading up to the street.

"_Jesus._" I said, shaking my head, as another loud groaning sound made itself known above us. "That's getting more frequent, too."

"Yeah, we've noticed that. Christ knows what it is..." Said Cook. "How did you go at Southwark, then?"

"Well, we found Emily's sister... As well as Freddie." I said, pointing to the two people we had picked up. Katie looked Effy and Cook up and down, and gave them both a look of distaste, moving to walk up the steps onto the platform, muttering something about her shoes. Freddie gave them both a polite wave.

"That's Katie, I take it?" Effy smirked.

"Yeah. Emily is the nicer of the two, from what I can gather." I nodded. "We raided the vending machine at Southwark, just in case. We also got the emergency lamps, but... Other than these two, there was nothing else there, except for a pile of charred corpses." I explained. "Including the stationmaster."

"Oh, bollocks." Cook groaned. "That was my best mate, JJ!"

"_Oh._ Sorry to hear it." I said.

"_HELP ME!_ Oh god, someone HELP ME!" A voice from above us distracted our attention momentarily, and what was left of the door opened, and a teenaged boy limped down the stairs, covered in dust, his face and white t-shirt soaked through with blood. He fell to his knees at the base of the stairs, and I quickly climbed up onto the platform, running towards him, crouching and barely catching him as he collapsed into my arms. He was shaking badly, his eyes wild as if he had seen something truly terrible. "Oh _GOD_... They're _EVERYWHERE!_" He cried.

"Someone give me some water, now!" I said, and Emily was quickly at my side as she opened one of the bottles and handed it to me. I held it up to the boy's mouth. "Here..." I said, and he drank some of the water before spitting it out, along with a fair amount of blood.

"Everything..._gone_...burning...destroyed..." He choked out, before coughing up more blood as he gripped onto me tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Don't...go...up there...it's..._argh..._sui...cide!" He groaned, before his eyes rolled back in his head, and he went completely limp.

I looked down at his shirt, the burned, torn fabric glistening with saturation. I ran my fingers over it, bringing them back up streaked in crimson. I lifted the shirt up his waist, and Emily gasped, turning away as the wound in his stomach was revealed. It was the first really horrible thing I had ever seen in my life. Something had speared him right through, and whatever it was had charred part of the wound, but not enough to stop it from bleeding profusely. God knows how he made it down here, or how far he'd had to run. There was something eerie and calm about the look in his now dead eyes. Like he had seen something certainly awful, but had found a safe place to die.

"_Jesus..._" I whispered. I laid the boy down on the ground, and closed his eyes for him.

"Fuckin' hell." Cook muttered.

"I think you had better secure those doors as _best_ as possible, Cook." I said.

"Yeah, whatever is up there, I_ don't_ think we want it down here..." Effy said.

"Right." Cook agreed. "Thomas, give me a hand?"

"Of course."

I stood up, feeling overcome with dizziness and lurched towards the edge of the platform before doubling over and heaving until I puked onto the rails below.

"Oh, _gross!_" Katie lisped behind me. "That's well classy."

"**_Fuck you!_**" I yelled.

"No thanks." She scoffed back. "Emily is the gay one."

"_Katie!_" Emily exclaimed, walking over to me and putting her hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off. "Leave me alone a minute, yeah?" I muttered, gently pushing her away. "I just need... Oh, Christ-" I turned and heaved once more, feeling the painful tightness in my stomach, and hearing the liquidy splash of my own vomit once more hitting the tracks. I spent a few minutes breathing heavily, trying to control my sudden nausea, and Emily handed me a bottle of water. I took a swig and swished it around a bit before spitting it out and clearing my throat. "T-thanks."

"It's the least I could do, yeah?" She replied. "Just ignore her. I do, most of the time."

"Naoms?" Effy said.

"Yeah?"

"That boy was down here before the three of you left." I turned to look at Effy, who look back at me with knowing blue eyes. "He went to take his chances on the surface with about half of them."

"Clearly that was a bad idea." Emily said. "What do you think happened to him?"

"Something got him through the stomach." I said, my voice shaky. "I'm not sure what. But I do know it's a _bad_ idea to go up there."

"Right, the doors are secured." Cook said.

"For what good it'll do..." Thomas added.

"Well, when we all came down here, the only thing that bought it was the glass, remember?" Effy said.

"Right...the shower of molten glass!" Emily said.

"The door is security glass. It's got that wire mesh stuff in it, to stop people trying to get in by simply smashing it." Cook said. "Well... it _was_ security glass."

"Well...what do we do now?" Katie asked, from across the platform.

I sighed. "I don't know. Let's rest a bit until we figure it out, yeah?"

"Great. _That's_ your plan?"

"I'm just as confused by all this as the rest of you, Katie. It's much like I said back at Southwark. You can either stay down here, keep walking to Westminster, or take your chances on the surface...like _him_." I said coldly, pointing to the recently deceased teenager lying a few feet from us.

She glared at me. "Couldn't be any _softer_ about it, could you?"

"Couldn't be any more of a _snippy bitch_, could you?" I shot back, noticing Emily's small smile. I straightened up, picked up a lantern and started walking towards the toilets. When I got there, the orange glow of the lights bounced off the white tiles around me. I looked at my reflection, noticing that a fine spray of blood covered half of my face, probably what was expelled into the air when the teenager died in my arms. I turned on the tap at one of the sinks, cupping my hands under the water that flowed only briefly before the pipes ran dry. I splashed it onto my face, pulling a couple of paper towels from the dispenser on the wall and wiping my face dry. I leaned against the sink and closed my eyes, feeling my hands start to shake against the porcelain as the tears began to spill from my eyes in a flood of emotion. I leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor, raising my knees and hugging them to me, resting my head on them. I took a few deep breathes to calm myself down, but still the tears fell down my cheeks.

"Cook says that there's..." Emily's voice paused as she caught the sight of me shaking. "...no water."

I shook my head. "Yeah, I figured that out for myself." I said, before sniffling slightly.

I heard her soft footsteps coming towards me. "Are you alright?"

"Oh yeah,_ fine._ The world is going to shit up top, and some kid just bled all over me before he died in my arms. Never been_ better_." I said, sarcastically. I sighed. "...sorry."

Emily shrugged. "It's ok, we're all scared." She said. "Some of us just deal differently. I let the fear consume me, Katie gets bitchy, and you apparently get sarcastic."

I laughed nervously and shook my head. "Sarcasm is my_ usual_ mode."

"Oh, I don't know." Emily replied. "You've been nice to me, so far."

"Yeah, well... You were scared."

"_Terrified._"

I nodded. "Are they all ok out there?"

Emily looked behind her shoulder to the doorway. "Yeah. Thomas is relating to Effy and Cook what we saw, and Katie is practically fawning over Freddie." She said, ending her sentence with a tone of distaste as she slid down the wall and sat next to me, taking my hand and squeezing it gently. I gripped it back tightly, not really sure why I did so. It just felt right, somehow. That's really the only explanation I had... A little bit of something comforting in the midst of all this craziness.

"Thanks..." I said, softly. "For this." I squeezed her hand a little more.

"You look like you needed something to make you feel better."

"I s'pose you're right." I mumbled. "It's been an exciting night, though not in a good way."

"No...not really."

I closed my eyes and yawned long, leaning my head back against the tiles. "Sorry... It's been a long day."

"Yeah, I guess it has." Emily replied. "Somehow I don't think I'll be called into work tomorrow."

I laughed, but there was very little humour in it. "Yeah, no kidding. What do you do for a job?"

"Temp office work, mostly. Also part time at a convenience store. Can't say I like it much, though..." She said. "You?"

"I'm in my last year at uni. Studying journalism with a minor in business."

"Do you find it interesting?"

"Yeah, I do. Not sure how much call there will be for it after all this shit that is happening, though..."

"Oh, I don't know. History always needs a document about it."

I looked over at Emily, who looked back at me with innocent curiosity. "Yeah, I suppose you have a point." I replied. "Listen... You should try and get some rest. I scrounged a blanket from the stationmaster's office at Southwark. Why don't you go and grab it out of the satchel...find somewhere to lie down?"

"Are you _sure?_ You are the one who looks knackered."

I shook my head. "Maybe, but I'm used to pulling all-nighters studying. I'll be fine."

Emily looked at me curiously again for a few moments, then nodded, leaning over to kiss me on the cheek. "Thank you." She said softly, before standing up.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"For being you." She shrugged. "Goodnight, Naomi." She said, walking out of the bathroom.

"Goodnight, Emily." I said.

I sat for a few minutes, with my head back against the wall, eyes closed and just trying to process what had happened that night. It was all so bloody surreal. The senseless destruction around me, the stupidity of the people who had taken that changes, and the poor boy who had died in my arms... Along with the many others who had died that night... Hundreds, thousands...who knew, possibly even_ millions_.

But what did we do next? We couldn't survive down here forever, living on limited vending machine supplies, fading hope and very little in the way of courage. And what about places outside London? Was this happening everywhere? For the first time in my young life, I actually worried about my mother. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks, and now... What if I never saw her again? What if I never got the chance to tell her that I loved her, instead of giving her my usual flippant sarcasm? _Jesus Christ._

I felt someone else settle in next to me. I knew it wasn't Emily... As funny as it sounds, I recognised her immediately, even though we had only been in each other's company a few hours. She had this smell around her... Sweet, like jasmine and vanilla. No, this was a different scent, but something I recognised, too.

"Effy." I said, softly.

"You ok, Naoms?" She said, placing her hand on my shoulder.

I shook my head. "No." I said, shakily. "What if everyone else is dead, Eff?"

"I've been trying not to think about it, myself." She replied. "You're tired, you should try and get some rest."

"I've got to try and get home, Effy. I have to know if Gina is ok." I said, not even believing the hopeful sound of my own voice.

"Naoms, Bristol is a couple of hours by train. And if you hadn't noticed, they aren't running..."

"Then I'll bloody _walk._ We have to get out of what's left of London. Even if it takes walking through the tubes to do it." I said, as more groaning sounded above our heads. "We can't stay here."

"Maybe you're right. But we should wait until morning before we make any decisions, yeah?"

"Yeah." I said, standing up and dusting myself off. "I'm going to ask Cook if there are any blankets or anything." I added, walking out of the bathroom.

It turned out there were a couple of blankets for emergencies, and Thomas, Cook and myself arranged to keep watch in two hour shifts. Both of them agreed that I should sleep first, apparently I looked more tired than I felt. Cook offered to let me kip on the sofa in the stationmaster's office, and I gratefully accepted. When I went into the office, I found Emily curled up in one of the armchairs, softly snoring, with an almost peaceful look on her face. I couldn't help but smile. She had been through a lot, we all had. I tried to clear my mind, laying down and covering myself with the blanket, closing my eyes and willing myself to try and get some sleep.

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**A/N#2: Nice to see the alien apocalypse doesn't turn KFF into any _less_ of a bitch...**

**I really do hope Gina is ok... She can't die in two of my stories, that would_ not_ be cool.**

**More as soon as I can tweeze it out of my mind... And we shall see what the morning brings...**

**Reviews are most welcome!**

**Until next time...**

**~GN~ xo**


	4. Barren Urban Wasteland

**A/N: Next chapter, then. Little bit of comfort, followed by what lies above the surface.**

**No more clues, so... On with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Active imagination, blah blah blah. Any and all typos should be shot I. Sight, but sometimes my scope misses them. I'm only human, after all.**

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**(Naomi POV)**

It was too quiet. So quiet, in fact, that I barely got any more than five minutes of the sort of sleep that makes you feel more tired. You drift... You're not _quite_ asleep and not quite awake, and I think it's even more draining than having slept uninterrupted for twelve hours. I sighed, tossing and turning on the old, but comfortable sofa, cursing that I couldn't sleep. I don't think I would have got any sleep had it been quiet anyway, but all the dull rumbling and groaning overhead made it even more impossible. Not only that, I was scared. Scared for myself, for the people here with me, and also the worry about Gina was setting in. I hoped she was far enough from anywhere that would be affected by all this chaos.

"Naomi?" Emily half whispered, disrupting my thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"You can't sleep, can you?"

A long sigh left me. "_No_." I replied.

"Me neither." She said. There was a long pause. "I'm_ really_ scared, Naomi." She said. It showed in her voice, she sounded so small, almost childlike.

I swallowed before I answered her. "So am I." I replied. "I know that it's not very reassuring..."

"It's ok. I can understand." She said. Another few minutes passed in silence between us. "Naomi?"

"_Mmm?_"

"Do you have anyone special? Other than your mum?"

A smile crossed my lips in the darkness. "You mean like a boyfriend?"

"Yeah. Or a girlfriend."

"No." I replied.

"What about Effy?"

I laughed, in spite of the situation. "_God_, no. She's just my best friend." I said.

"Oh." She said, the tone of her voice showing surprise.

"Was Katie being serious...when she said you were gay?"

There was a short pause. "Yes." Emily replied. "Does that bother you?"

"Not at all." I said.

"I didn't_ think_ it would."

"That obvious?"

"Plaid shirt, skinny jeans, Converses... Not _that_ hard to tell." Emily said, and I could hear the humour in her voice.

"Dammit, I _thought_ that was my stealth outfit!" I joked, hearing Emily laugh softly. "I don't really care what people think of me, anyway. If they don't know me, why should I?"

"Good point." She said, shuffling around a little.

I looked over at her, still slightly visible in the darkness. "You should come and share the sofa. There's room enough for two. You can _hardly_ be comfortable curled up on that chair..."

"A-are you sure?"

"You might as well." I said, shuffling over to give her space. "It might help you sleep... if you're more comfortable."

I heard no response, but did hear shuffling as Emily uncurled herself and got up out of the chair. I shuffled backwards to give her some space, and she first sat down on the sofa, then laying down and squeezing in as comfortably as she could. She spent a few moments attempting to arrange the blanket around her.

"Bit of a squeeze..." She muttered.

"Well, I think they're short on _deluxe_ models, so unfortunately we will have to make do." I joked.

"I wonder if we can complain..."

"I'll ask Cook in the morning." I laughed.

The next minutes consisted of a lot of awkward shuffling, with some whispered apologies from Emily. I rolled my eyes in the dark. "_Here_..." I said, shifting onto my side so we would both have a bit more space, wrapping my arm around her waist. "Uhm... This is just so... I'm not trying to start anything, just so you know..."

"Y-yeah... I know." Emily replied, softly.

"Ok."

It was only now, in this silence, that the proximity of Emily's body to mine set off a queasy feeling inside me. I guess the chaos that was all around us put the normal Friday night thoughts that I would have usually had out of my mind. But now... Well, I'd be lying if I said I thought that Emily wasn't attractive. If I'd met her twin first, I might have thought differently. I mean, twins are mostly alike, aren't they? But Katie and Emily... They seemed to be completely different to each other. Katie struck me as very bitchy, and completely self centred. Emily, on the other hand came across as a little bit vulnerable. Ok, a_ lot_ vulnerable, which made me wonder if that was a normal thing, or if it was just because the world was going to _total_ shit around us. It made me wonder which of them was older. Emily's attitude made me think it was her, but something Katie had said about what their mother thought of Emily made me think twice.

"_Mum was right, you know, you are getting too sure of yourself_..."

Regardless, though... The differences between the two stood out like a sore thumb. I gathered that the two had been out at the same club, but where Emily had worn jeans, a darkish grey vest top and a blue shirt, along with a pair of black Doc Martens, Katie had worn tight black jeans, a leopard print jacket and a pair of those godawful slutty looking stripper heels that I _never_ thought were fashionable, unless you had half your brain missing and thought gossip rags like HEAT were the be-all and end-all of culture.

"Naomi?" Emily whispered, jolting me out of my thoughts. "Are you asleep?"

I sighed. "No."

"I can't stop thinking about my parents." She said, her voice sounding small again. "And my brother."

"I know what you mean. I keep thinking about my mum." I said, quietly.

I felt Emily's hand cover mine, squeezing it gently. "What if..." Her voice trailed off, sadly. "_Jesus_."

"_Don't,_ Emily. It won't do you any good." I said, softly, pulling her a little closer to me, as she sniffled softly and gripped my hand a little tighter.

"I'm trying, but it's hard, y'know?" She said.

"Yeah. I know."

A few more minutes passed in silence as Emily's hand continued to grip mine tightly. "Will you come with me?"

"What?"

"To my house."

"_W-why?_" I asked. "You'll have Katie with you..."

She scoffed, slightly. "She's going to drive me crazy."

"I'm not sure it's such a good idea... I don't think your sister likes me much." I said.

"_Please,_ Naomi?" Her pleading tone replied.

I thought for a moment. "Chiswick, yeah?"

"Mmhmm."

"Ok." I sighed. "It's the least I can do to help."

"Really?"

"Yeah." I said. "But we need to _try_ and get some sleep, ok?" I added, as another loud groaning noise sounded above us. "As hard as that may be..."

"I know." She whispered. "I'll try."

After that, she settled herself down, strangely enough, and soon was sleeping soundly. So was I, not long after. It had been a long night full of chaos, and it was finally glad to get some kind of rest.

* * *

I was being gently nudged awake a few hours later by Thomas, the office illuminated softly by lantern.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"It is your turn to take watch." Thomas said.

"Oh..._right._" I said.

Very carefully, I tried not to disturb Emily as I got up, but it proved impossible when she began to stir awake.

"Huh..._what_...where are you going?" She said, in a sleepy mumble.

"I'm going to take watch, Emily. Go back to sleep."

"But-"

"I _won't_ be far, yeah?"

She sighed. "_Um_...ok..."

I gave her a polite smile, and stood up, stretching my limbs. I picked up the lantern and left the office as Thomas laid down on the floor and made himself a pillow out of his hooded jacket. I walked out onto the platform and saw Freddie and Katie curled up together on one of the benches, and Cook curled up on another. Effy was sitting against the far wall smoking a cigarette, and the body of the dead teenager was still lying where he had died, though a blanket had been placed over him.

"I didn't think anyone else would be awake." I said, as I sat down next to my best friend. "Got a spare one of those?" I asked.

"Thought you quit..." Effy replied, handing over her half empty pack.

"_Yeah well_, under the circumstances, I might be dead tomorrow, so..." I replied.

"Nice to see your usual gallows humour hasn't faded."

"_Ha._" I said, lighting the cigarette, and handing the packet back to her. I took a long drag, feeling the smoke burn my throat. "Yeah, I didn't miss this much..." I said, exhaling.

"Emily still asleep, then?" Effy asked.

"Yeah."

"You like her."

"I don't even_ know_ her." I scoffed.

"That's never stopped you before."

"Oh, shut up, Eff."

"Fine." She smirked.

I sighed, and leaned my head back against the wall, watching the cigarette burn as I held it between my fingers. "She wants me to go to Chiswick with her."

"Chiswick?"

"It's where her family is." I said. "I think she's worried she'll go there and..."

"She won't find them?"

I nodded. "She said they had been out tonight. She didn't say where, but... She's _really_ scared something has happened to them, Eff."

"Oh." She replied. After a short pause, she stood up. "Well, I'm going to try and get a bit of sleep. Thomas said to give you this... On the off chance that someone comes from outside and wants to come in." She added, handing me an old fashioned looking key.

"Yeah, right. 'Night." I said, taking the key and holding it between my fingers.

I sat alone for a while, finishing the cigarette before stubbing it out against the bricks. I looked out through the blown out double doors, seeing that the sky was beginning to turn the shade of colour that comes when dawn begins. I noted, with some curiosity, that the noises we had been hearing all night had stopped, having not heard any since I'd woken up. In fact, it was_ eerily_ quiet outside the double doors. I got up onto my feet, and walked to the door, sliding the heavy iron key into its lock, turning it until the lock clicked. It took quite some effort to push the door open, but once it started to slide the weight of it made it a simpler task. I only slid the door open partway, just enough to give me enough space to venture outside, not that it mattered letting any cold in, seeing as the glass was all gone anyway. I could see smoke, that was now more visible in the growing light, and I could smell it's acrid burning stench in the air around me.

The steps leading down into the station were covered in debris, mostly crumbled bricks and a fair bit of dust. There was an arm, severed from the elbow, sitting against the wall. The soles of my shoes softly crunched over the dust as I slowly walked up the steps, holding onto the railing as a small amount of fear rolled around in my stomach. I had made it halfway up the stairs when I heard a small voice behind me.

"_Naomi?_"

I turned to see Emily at the vacant space between the two doors, her fingers curled around the frame, looking at me curiously. I held my fingers up to my lips, motioning for her to remain quiet, as I continued up the steps carefully. I stopped a few steps from the top, and stared at the scene before me in complete shock.

Almost the entire city had been reduced to a barren urban wasteland. Whatever hadn't been decimated by the creatures, was burning. That accounted for the smoke I could see, not only around us, but off in the distance. The Houses of Parliament were still standing, god knows how, but smoke was radiating off its burnt out shell in huge columns. The nearest partially standing building to the station was about fifty metres down the road, and half of it was totally reduced to rubble, piled up haphazardly around its foundations. Everything else...was just gone. What's more, bodies littered the street around us. Some were intact, some were mangled into what would have been uncomfortable positions had they been alive, and they were strewn with blood. Some weren't intact... At all. I stepped out onto the footpath, and I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and put my hand up to stop Emily from coming any further. I then looked up at the exterior of the station building... All the windows had blown out, and the molten glass pooled like ice on the pavement around me.

Smoke poured from the vacant windows of the station's facade above my head, and a horrible burning smell hung in the air, more so than I had smelled in the stairwell. It was even more acrid, quite unlike everything I had ever smelled before, and from some of the corpses I saw with my own eyes, well, 'human barbecue' was a fairly accurate description.

"What is it?" Emily whispered. I looked at her, and her eyes widened as she took in my expression. "It...it's _bad_, isn't it?" She said. I could only nod, the power of speech failing me completely. She made it to the top step, and gasped. "Oh my god." She whispered. I blinked, feeling tears sliding down my cheeks, and I turned around to see Emily standing frozen, staring at the sight around us, and over the river. The river, which you now had a completely clear view of, now that the obstructing buildings had been reduced to nothing. "That's...what the noises were last night... d'you think?"

I shrugged. "I d-don't k-know." I mumbled.

"There's nothing left." Emily said, her voice choking up. I stepped towards her, and placed my hand on her shoulder. She turned to look up at me, with a panic stricken look in her eyes. "Oh my _god_, Naomi!" She slid her arms around me and I pulled her body close to mine as she started to cry. We held each other as she sobbed, and I breathed shakily.

"_Mon dieu!_" A voice half-whispered from behind us. I turned my head to see Thomas looking at the sights around us, also in shock. I don't know what conflicts Thomas had seen in his home country, but something told me it was nothing on this scale, to the point of seeing a city with so much history reduced to almost nothing. "This took one night?"

"Looks that way." I muttered, sadly, as Emily lifted her head off my chest and rubbed her eyes dry. "Is anyone else awake?"

"Effy is, still. Everyone else is still asleep."

I sighed. "We'd better get everyone up, I think. It's going to be an interesting day."

The three of us went back downstairs, and Emily and I went into the office to find Effy.

"You two look like you've seen ghosts." She said, as she casually lay back on the sofa.

"Not the half of it, Eff." I said wearily, as Emily sat down and hugged her knees to her chest.

"Everything's _gone_." Emily croaked. "All of it."

"_Gone?_" Effy asked.

"Go up the stairs and take a look." I said, looking out to the platform. She got up off the sofa and slowly sauntered out the door. I kneeled down in front of Emily and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "I _won't_ ask if you are ok, because I know it's a stupid question." She nodded. "I'll still come with you to Chiswick, ok? Have some hope."

"_Hope?_" Emily laughed, with little humour. "The whole city is _gone_, Naomi, and your telling me to have hope?"

I took her hand between mine and squeezed it tightly. "It's _all_ we have, Emily." I said, softly. "I know it's hard, but we have to hold into it." She swallowed and looked at me with sad, lost eyes before nodding. The look she gave me almost broke my heart, and I pulled her to me and hugged her tightly, feeling her arms slip around me.

Footsteps alerted me to Effy's presence in the doorway, and Emily leaned back out of my arms. "Fucking_ hell,_ Naoms." Effy said, in her usual monotone.

I stood up and pulled Emily up off the sofa. "We have to tell the others." I said, walking out of the office.

Katie and Freddie were sitting up, the lanky boy rubbing his eyes and Katie putting her jacket back on. "This _better_ be fucking good, I was having a nice dream." She snapped.

I ignored her tone, as Cook stood up off the other bench, yawned and stretched his arms out. "Well? What's going on?"

"I don't know what's happened, but something has gone very, very wrong." I said.

"Yeah, right." Katie scoffed.

"_Listen!_" I said, pointing upwards. I looked around as Cook looked up towards the ceiling, and Katie shrugged with indifference.

"So what?" She said. "I can't hear anything."

"_Exactly._" I replied.

"The groaning has stopped, yeah?" Cook said.

"Oh, good. We can go home, then! C'mon Ems, let's get out of here, these losers are starting to_ really_ get on my tits..." Katie said, walking to the end of the platform and starting up the steps, Cook and Freddie following her close behind.

"_Katie!_" Emily called.

"Let her go, Emily." I said. Emily turned to me with furrowed eyebrows. I shrugged. "It's the only way she will see that it's for real."

"Oh my ..._god!_" Katie's diminished shriek came from up the stairs. Her heels clicked back down the stairs and she sat down on the bench in shock. "Y-you weren't joking..."

"Yeah, because I'm going to fucking **_joke_** about the fact that the city has been fucking_ decimated_ by god knows what!" I said, sarcastically.

Katie stared at me with a flinty distaste. "Right, no need to be so bloody sarcastic about it, _bitch!_"

Emily rolled her eyes. "Katie... Will you**_ STOP?!_**" She said. "Now isn't the fucking time."

"So... What do we do now?" Cook asked, as he descended the last few steps.

I sighed. "Well, I need to get to Bristol somehow."

"_Bristol?!_ That's a fair hike, love." He replied.

"Yeah, no shit, but I'll walk it if I have to. My mother lives there. I don't hold much hope for my flat in London still standing, but if it is, I'll take what I can before I go." I explained. "Effy, you in?" I looked at my best friend who nodded back at me. "Good. Emily needs to get back to Chiswick, and I promised her I'd go with her."

"_You?_" Katie said, in disgust. "Why you?"

I turned to Katie. "Because your sister _asked_ me to, that's why!" I snapped. "I frankly don't _care_ if you come with us or not, but if you_ do_, I'm telling you now, I can do _without_ your shitty attitude."

"Fucking _ridiculous_." Katie muttered.

"I suggest the rest of you try and get back to your homes, if you can." I said, looking around at everyone else.

"And what then, oh great leader?" Katie sneered.

"You know what, I really don't know." I said.

"_Great._"

"Well, let's hear _your_ great plan then, Katie." I shrugged. I was met with silence. "That's what I thought. Look, I don't know if what's happened up there is confined to London or if it's more widespread. I _don't_ know if I'm going to find anything in Bristol at all, but I have to find out." I explained. "I make it..." I looked at the time on my phone. "...six thirty am. I'll be back here at ten thirty. If anyone who doesn't have anywhere to go back to wants to, they can come with me up to Bristol."

Thomas put up his hand. "I had an apartment not far from here. I will go there, but from what I can see up there..." He said, before shaking his head. "I will come with you to Bristol."

I nodded. "Fair enough."

"Ten thirty, yeah?" Cook asked.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Done, Blondie."

About twenty minutes later, Effy and I had distributed water to everyone, and we shared a communal breakfast of random packets of crisps and chocolate from the vending machine. Katie whined about it being unhealthy.

"This is going to make me break out..." She muttered.

"Well sorry, the fresh fruit buffet is permanently delayed. Deal with it." I shot back.

"_Fuck you._"

"Not my type, babes." I smirked back, drawing a giggle from Emily. "It may not be your usual breakfast, but it's _energy_, and trust me, you are going to need it."

A short while later, the seven of us went up the station steps to the surface. Cook, Freddie and Thomas went on their way, agreeing to meet us back here at ten thirty, and Effy and I set off with Emily and Katie, navigating the rubble filled streets on our way to Chiswick.

* * *

**A/N: Another chapter bites the...erm...dust. Pun intended.**

**More eventually. Have been preoccupied the past couple of days, getting up to no good and having my soul crushed into bits by corporate wankers, so am slowly getting back into writing. C'est la guerre, mes amies...**

**Until next time...**

**~GN~ xo**


	5. This Was Our Neighbourhood

**A/N: Hello, there. Cheers awfully for the positive reviews and such. Much appreciated!**

**This chapter is not a happy one. There's devastation aplenty, and I shall give away no more clues, so you will just have to read on.**

**On with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Bugger. Any and all typos are a lie, just like the cake.**

* * *

**(Naomi POV)**

No one said much, as we walked. I think we were too much in shock at seeing the once great city of London virtually decimated to _nothing_, in the course of one night. A light wind blew through what used to be streets, but were now mere pathways through twisted, charred rubble. And the Thames... What was once a busy, flowing river that was no thoroughfare for ferries and cargo shops, was now as eerily silent as the rest of the city. As we crossed the bridge going towards the Houses of Parliament, I saw one ferry midway between the two banks, completely still. We all stopped, and I stared at it. The windows were blown out, and something inside it was burning.

But what struck me the most was the floating bodies near it. The water, which was never totally clear, had taken on a horrid looking slick that covered it from bank to bank. Black, and oily.

"What do you suppose it is? The slick..." Asked Katie.

I shrugged. "I don't know." I replied, my voice quiet. "Dust, maybe."

"Where did it all come from?"

I sighed. "Look around you, Katie." I said, turning to her. "What _don't_ you see?"

Katie looked around, and then back at me with some form of realisation in her eyes. "...oh."

"Come on. We'd better keep moving." I said. "My flat isn't much further... If it's still there, that is."

We'd walked for about another thirty minutes, towards my suburb, which, surprisingly, was mostly still standing. Some of the newer buildings were gone, but for the first time, I was thankful that Effy and I had a flat in an older building.

"You're welcome to come up for a rest, if you want. I need to pack some things anyway, so..." I trailed off.

"Yeah, thanks." Emily said, beginning to follow me up the stairs, along with Katie, as I followed Effy. When we reached our floor, she opened the door, and we went inside.

"Nice decor." Katie smirked, as she looked around. "The latest in lezzer chic?"

"Sorry, if I'd have known you were coming, I'd have borrowed a beefcake pinup to make you drool." I sneered back, flicking a light switch. The light didn't come on, and my suspicion was confirmed when I looked in the kitchen and saw a puddle of water under the fridge. "The power is out." I stated. I turned on the tap at the sink, and cold water flowed out. "There's still running water, though. If you need water, I suggest you get some now, and top up your water bottles. I'm going to get some stuff together."

I went into my room, and looked around, pulling out a large rucksack that I'd brought with me when I'd left Bristol. I was looking through my drawers, when Emily appeared in the doorway. "Alright?" She asked.

I shrugged. "As well as can be expected. Did you get some water?"

"Yeah, I refilled my bottle. Sorry about Katie."

"Mmm." I murmured, picking out some t-shirts and pants. "Do you make a habit of apologising for her_ all_ the time?"

She blushed, and in any other situation, I would have thought it was cute. "I suppose that I do."

"The house you live in... Is it new, or old?" I asked, bluntly.

"What?"

"Your_ house_, Emily. The one you live in, in Chiswick, with your parents and your brother. Is it new, or old?"

"Uhm... Newish, I guess. But..." She suddenly went silent. "_Oh_."

"Look..." I said, quietly. "I don't mean to be harsh, and I know I said you had to keep some hope. I'm not saying you shouldn't. But... I've noticed most of the newer buildings..."

"They haven't survived." Emily replied, the wobble back in her tone of voice.

"_No_." I said, stepping close to her. I placed my hands on her shoulders, and her brown eyes met mine. For the first time it noticed just how beautiful they were. I also noticed the slight ring of tears that were beginning to form. "You know that they_ might_ be gone, don't you?" She closed her eyes, and her lip trembled as she nodded. A single tear spilled out of each of her eyes as she started to cry. I pulled her into my arms and held her tightly, allowing her to cry. "I'm sorry, Emily." I whispered softly.

There came a soft knock on the door. I looked up to see Effy leaning in the doorway. "Is she alright?"

I shook my head. "It's just the reality of it all, Eff."

"Right." She replied. "I think we should take food with us."

"Probably not a bad idea. There's another rucksack in the cupboard." I said, looking towards the already opened cupboard door. "Is the landline still working?" Effy shook her head. "_Damn._ I guess it was a slim hope I'd be able to try and reach Gina by phone."

"Yeah, I wanted to try and call Anthea, but I guess that's not happening, either."

"Who's Anthea?" Emily croaked, lifting her head off my chest.

"My mother." Effy replied.

"Oh."

"Emily, I know it's bleak, but you-"

"Have to keep hope. I know." Emily said, cutting Effy off mid sentence. She peered at Emily with those striking blue eyes of hers and half smiled, nodding.

"Right, well I'll get on with packing some food, then." She said, going to the cupboard and pulling out the rucksack.

"Forget the fridge, yeah? Take the bread, and the packet stuff in the cupboards."

Effy nodded, and then left the room.

I released my hold on Emily, and set about finishing packing the rucksack. "Reality_ sucks_, Emily. We grow up thinking that life will work itself out, and that things will be sweet. And then... Creatures invade and everything changes."

"_No shit_, Sherlock. Can't you find anything uplifting to say?" Came Katie's voice from the doorway.

"Frankly, Katie... If there was _anything_ uplifting to say right now, I'd say it."

"Yeah, right." Katie scoffed.

"Believe me, or don't. I really don't care." I said as I finished packing and securely closed the rucksack. "Did any of what we saw in the centre of the city make _any_ impact in that self-centred mind of yours, Katie?" She stared at me blankly. "London...is _gone_. We don't even know if it's confined to London, or if it's more widespread. All we can do is hope, from now on. Nothing is certain, and like I told Emily, you should be prepared to_ not_ find what you hope to in Chiswick."

"Blunt, aren't you?"

"I don't see any reason to sugar coat it, when there's rubble all around us." I said, coldly.

"Yeah, well, you'll see. Our house will be fine, and so will our parents. And you'll just have to _apologise_."

"Whatever, Katie." I said, heaving the rucksack onto my shoulder, pushing past her and making my way to the kitchen. "What have we got, Eff?"

"Half a loaf of bread, most of a jar of peanut butter, a box of crackers, a packet of dried apricots, two apples, two bananas, three tins of beans and two cans of SPAM." Effy replied. "Today was meant to be shopping day, after all."

"Shit." I said. "Well, it'll have to do." I picked up a glass off the sideboard and drew some water from the tap. I took a long drink. "Katie is _really_ starting to piss me off." I said, quietly.

"Oh?"

"Just her attitude." I said. "What do you make of all of this?"

Effy finished packing the food into the rucksack and sighed. "It's definitely not good. I'm sort of glad Anthea and Tony are in Spain."

"What if it's happened_ there_, too?" I asked.

Effy shrugged. "Not much I can do, really. Same if this has happened all over England." She said, looking at me.

I swallowed. "_Yeah._" I said, quietly. "I've packed some clothes and other things, anyway. I suggest you do the same."

Effy nodded. "Already done." She said, looking towards the table. I followed her line of sight and my eyes fell upon another rucksack that sat in the middle.

"Uhm..." I said, quietly. "I packed some extra, too. Just in case we get to Chiswick and we don't find anything. Emily says her house is fairly new."

"That makes a difference?" Effy asked.

I nodded. "I think so. I think there's a reason the Palace of Westminster and Waterloo station are still standing. You saw what hit the Houses, Eff, same as I did. And the skyscrapers in the central district... I noticed on our walk here, that the buildings still standing, are older. I think it's dumb luck that our flat is still here. The rest of the street is-"

"Pretty much fucked." Effy finished.

"Precisely." I said. "Anyway... We'd better get going, so we can make it to Chiswick and then back to Waterloo station." I opened the cutlery drawer and drew out the large heavy carving knife, in its protective sheath. "Just in case." I muttered, sliding it into my rucksack. I refilled my water bottle, as well.

Effy handed me the rucksack of food, and I went into the sitting room. Katie was sitting on the sofa looking bored, inspecting her fingers. "Chipped a bloody nail... That manicure cost me a hundred quid!"

Emily rolled her eyes, and stood up off the arm of the sofa as Effy and I entered the room. I handed her the bag of food. "Here. Precious cargo, yeah?"

"Got anything decent in there? Or is it all student-esque pot noodle and baked beans?"

"Katie, for the second, or possibly third time, I'm _TIRED_ of your shit, yeah? If you've got nothing decent to contribute, I suggest you shut up, because if you don't, it _won't_ just be Emily who's slapped you in the past twenty four hours." I snapped. "It's not sushi and fucking alfalfa, but it'll _keep you alive_, ok?" Katie glared at me, her lips in a thin line. "Emily?"

"Yeah?"

"You can direct us to Chiswick. Unfortunately I doubt that there'll be a bus, so it's the shoe leather express for us."

"You're wearing Vans." Katie scoffed.

"It's an expression, you_ twat_." I sneered.

"Alright, let's go, then." Effy said, diffusing the tension in the room.

As we went to leave the flat, we passed the window. I stopped in my tracks and looked out over the rubble outside. "Jesus Christ." I mumbled, in shock.

"Oh god, what now?" Katie groaned. I rolled my eyes, and stepped towards Katie, grabbing her by the shoulder. "Hey! What the-"

"Do you _see_ that?!" I growled, pulling her to the window and making her look outside. "Do you fucking see **_THAT?!_**" Katie nodded. "Do you think this is a fucking _joke_, Katie? You think you're going to wake up and everything will be normal, like this is a_ bad dream?!_" She flinched and shrunk in my grip. I shoved her backwards slightly. "Emily's right. Grow the_ fuck_ up."

I pushed my way past her, and opened the door, leaving our flat, Emily following quickly behind me. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, she spoke, her voice quiet. "Naomi..."

I stopped abruptly and turned back towards her. "_What?!_" I said, as she crashed into me. I braced my hands against her shoulders. "Shit. Uhm...sorry."

She looked up at me with big, brown, concerned eyes. "It's ok." She said, quietly. "But...are _you?_"

The slight pleading in her voice tugged at something inside me. My shoulders slumped. "_Please_ don't ask me that." I whispered, before biting my bottom lip.

She nodded, and took my hand. "Ok." She said, squeezing my hand tightly. I looked into her eyes. They drew me in, slightly, making me feel a little safer.

"Thanks." I said, softly rubbing my thumb over hers. I knew she was trying to find a way to ease my tension. It was sweet, and it was a little bit of comfort in the midst of all the chaos. I looked at her, and she gave me a soft smile, that made me feel a little bit funny.

"Come on, then..." Effy said in her usual bored tone, as she and Effy came down the stairs. "To Chiswick."

And so, with Emily leading the way, we set off through what was left of London.

* * *

About an hour later, we had reached a corner block that was burnt out, with its windows missing, and another sight that stopped us all dead in our tracks. The image of a human form was burned into the wall, its arms outstretched, almost as if in surrender. My eyes trailed over the image to the ground, where a pile of charred ashes about one foot in diameter remained. Next to it, three corpses lay still. One was of a woman twisted into an uncomfortable position, with a massive laceration running from one shoulder down to the waist. The second, was charred beyond recognition. The third was a man split in two at the waist, with his intestines linking the row halves together, like a giant, absurd and disgusting rubber band.

"Oh my..." Katie muttered, before stumbling off towards a low wall that was mostly rubble a few feet away from us. She placed her hands on it and began to gag, before vomiting over the crushed bricks.

"Effy...go give her some water." I said. She nodded and went over to help.

"This was our neighbourhood." Emily said, her voice so low that I barely heard her. "That was the corner shop." She added, pointing to the building in front of us, with its newly gained graffiti. I looked around, and my heart sunk. There wasn't much of the area left, to be honest. Few buildings were left standing, and the devastation that we had seen in the midst of the city was just as horrifyingly prevalent in the suburbs. The destruction of London, it seemed, was total, except for anything pre Second World War, it seemed.

I reached for Emily's hand, and took it in mine, squeezing it tightly. "How far to your street?" I asked, quietly.

"Not far." She replied. "Couple of streets away."

I nodded. "Wait here." I said, going over to where Effy sat, making sure Katie was alright. "Katie...are you alright?" I asked, as I crouched down in front of her. She looked at me with hurt, scared eyes, and shook her head. I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Listen to me, Katie." I said, softly. "I won't lie to you, from the looks of what's around here, there's a very good chance your house is gone."

Katie nodded. "I know." She whispered. "I...I can't..." Tears started to fall from her eyes. "Jesus..."

"You don't have to, if you don't feel you can. I'll go with Emily." I said. "I'll look after her."

Katie looked up at me with pleading eyes. "Don't let anything hurt my baby sister." She whispered.

"I'll do my best, I promise." I replied. "We'll be back as soon as we can. Effy will stay with you."

"Be careful, Naoms." Effy said, as I straightened up.

"You too, Eff." I nodded. "Come on, Emily. Let's go."

By the time we reached the end of the street, Emily had taken my hand and was once again squeezing it for what seemed like dear life. I suppose it was, in many ways. I knew she was scared of what she would, or wouldn't find, and so was I. I'd already seen such fear in her eyes, and was, for some reason, loathe to see any more pain come to them. But I knew that was highly likely, given that whatever these creatures were, everything we knew and took for granted was completely gone.

The two of us were silent as we walked, our footsteps almost echoing in the eerie stillness of the destruction around us. We walked past homes that had been reduced to rubble, cars that had been twisted and melted completely out of shape, and far too many corpses of unfortunate victims than I'd ever wanted to see in my lifetime. This didn't seem like London. It seemed like we were walking through the streets of Baghdad or downtown Afghanistan.

"Katie's older than you, then?" I said, needing to break the deafening silence around us.

"Yes."

"By how much?"

"Six minutes." Emily replied.

"I bet she's _never_ let you forget it either, huh?"

"Not really."

"That must have been hard, growing up..." I said.

"You don't have any brothers or sisters?"

I shook my head. "No. Just me. Mum found out she was pregnant with me, and my dad fucked off. I never knew him."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be." I almost laughed. "He obviously didn't want to know me, so I'm probably better off."

"I saw a picture in your flat, on top of the bookcase... Of an older woman, with blonde hair and blue eyes just like yours. Your mum?" Emily asked.

"Yeah."

"Is she nice?"

"Bit potty sometimes... Bit of a hippie...but yeah, she's nice." I replied. "What about your mum?"

"_Uhm_..." Emily said, and it could hear her discomfort. I could almost feel it.

"Right, sorry."

"No, it's ok... I just..." She stopped mid sentence, and also in her tracks, as we came to a house, or rather, a pile of rubble that had a burned out SUV in front of it. The charred license plate hanging off it from one screw read 'GT FTCHD'. "Oh,_ no_..." She croaked, her hand immediately reaching up and covering her mouth. She stepped closer, and after the third step, she fell to her knees and started flat out sobbing. I traced her line of vision and heard her cry of grief the exact same second I fixed my eyes on three corpses, the two adults whom I assumed to be Emily's parents, and one of which was half under the massive pile of rubble. I stepped towards Emily, and kneeled down behind her, wrapping my arms around her, and holding her as she sobbed, shaking like a leaf.

"I'm so sorry, Emily." I whispered, feeling tears slipping from my own eyes at the unfairness of it all. She turned in my arms and I held her tight to me, trying to take away the pain of this discovery...something I knew I couldn't do.

"_Why_, Naomi?" She sobbed. "Why did they have to take my family?"

"I'm sorry. I wish I knew why_ any_ of this has happened." I said. I knew there was nothing I could say that would make this any better, the motion of that more real to me as Emily buried her head in my shoulder and sobbed harder.

When she finally calmed down a bit, a few minutes later, I stood up and pulled her up with me. "We can't just..._leave_ them here like that..." She said, her tone numb.

"Uhm..." I thought for a few moments. "Did you have a garden shed?" Emily nodded. "Ok...come on." I took her hand, and we walked behind the pile of rubble, where, strangely, the garden shed was still standing. Unfortunately, it was locked.

"Dad always kept it locked because of the tools he kept in there." Emily shrugged.

"Wise choice, in this day and age." I said, trying to keep the conversation light. "Uh..." I looked around, and picked up a brick that was luckily big enough for what I wanted to do. I hoped the padlock wasn't completely solid in its construction. "Stand back, I don't want to hit you." I said. Emily stood back as I raised the brick above my head, bringing it down with some force against the padlock. Unfortunately, I hit the door instead. I tried once more, and this time hit the lock, but it withstood the impact. "Oh come _on_, you _bastard_..." I muttered, once again raising the brick above my head and bringing it down harder. Again, it practically bounced off, only serving to make me angry. A rage kicked around in my blood, and I repeatedly hammered the bloody lock with the brick, until the rivets holding the latch onto the shed came loose, and the entire mechanism dropped off the shed and into the grass at my feet. I threw the brick aside and yanked open the door. I went inside, and spotted the items I was looking for.

I went back outside, and Emily looked at me with a mixture of fear, dread and surprise. "A shovel?" She asked, biting her bottom lip. "_Oh._" She said, her shoulders slumping slightly.

"No sugar coating, yeah?" I said, to which Emily nodded. "I'm_ sorry_ about your family, Emily. I really am. But if you don't want to leave them as they are, there's only one solution for it. I know it sucks, and it's a shitty situation. So, we dig." The look in her eyes actually hurt. I knew that it wasn't directed at me, but at the situation itself, and the horror of it all. She nodded, sadly, and turned to walk back to the front garden.

About an hour later, we had dug two holes. I dug the one for Emily's parents, and she dug the one for her younger brother. And honestly? There wasn't much left of him, having been crushed by the rubble of their family home. Emily looked distraught, as we both picked up the bodies, first of her mother, and then her father, placing them side by side in the same hole, which I had dug wide enough for two. But she didn't cry, even as we placed the remains of her brother into the grave she had dug for him.

"Do you want to say anything, before we..." I asked, picking up one of the shovels.

Emily was silent for a few moments. "I never thought I'd have to do this." She croaked, before clearing her throat. "Uhm... Here lies Jenna and Robert Fitch?" She half-laughed. "God, this is so_ fucking_ absurd...uh..." She paused. "Beloved parents of Emily, Katie and James...who also now lies here." She continued, tears now once again falling down her cheeks as she spoke. "I don't know what else to say... I feel like I should say more, but then, I didn't think I'd be burying my parents today." She said, bluntly.

"I know." I said.

"It_ hurts_, Naomi." She said, breaking down again.

I pulled her into my arms and hugged her to me. "I know it's not much consolation, but they're in a better place." I said, quietly. She nodded against my chest. "Come on... We should get this over with, yeah?"

"Yeah..." She whispered.

It took us a little less time to cover the bodies with the earth we had dug out. Emily still remained silent, but I could almost hear her thoughts. "_I can't believe I'm doing this._" "_I can't believe I'm burying my parents and my brother._"

When we were finished, we stuck the spades into the ground blade side up, to mark the graves. I picked up a piece of chalky stone from the midst of the rubble, and marked the graves with her parents' names, and that of her brother. Emily took one last look at the place that used to be her home, yanking the license plate off the burned out SUV that was once her parents' car. "Let's go." She said, a coldness in her voice, as she started to walk back the way we had came.

A short while later, we made it back to the burned out building we had left Katie and Effy at. It was Effy who saw us first. Katie was leaning against the wall, her eyes closed. Effy stood up and came towards us. "Katie's having a bit of a rest." She said. "How did you go?"

I shook my head, as Emily walked past Effy in the direction of her sister. "The house is gone, Eff. Her parents were dead in the front yard. Her brother was half buried under the rubble."

"Oh, shit." Effy replied, as we looked over to see Emily drop the charred license plate on the ground, startling Katie from her kip. She started to argue, when Emily pulled her close and hugged her fiercely. Then, they both began to cry with each other.

Effy and I sat against the wall of the building, the charred corpses not far from our feet. "I helped her bury them." I said, quietly.

"_What?_"

"Emily's family. She didn't want them left there like that, so..." I said. "That's why we took so long. I broke into the garden shed, which was still standing...and helped her dig graves for her parents and what was left of her brother."

"_Jesus_."

I sighed, deeply. "I'm _really_ worried about Gina, now."

"So am I. She's a good person, Naoms, she doesn't deserve..."

"No, she doesn't." I conceded. I leaned my head back against the bricks and closed my eyes. "It's all so fucked up, Eff. What the hell did we do to deserve this?"

"Christ knows."

The sound of a cleared throat met my ears. I opened my eyes to see a very sad looking Emily and Katie standing in front of us. It was Emily who spoke. "Can we come with you to Bristol?"

"Are you sure?" I asked. "It's going to be a long walk."

"I've already buried my_ family_, Naomi. A long walk is _paradise_ compared to that." She replied, bitterly.

I nodded. "Right. Sorry." I said. "And you too, Katie?"

"There's nothing here, is there?" She said, with half-hearted venom. She closed her eyes briefly. "I'm sorry, I know I've been a bitch."

"You said it." I replied. "Under the circumstances, I accept your apology. I'm sorry about your family."

"Emily tells me you...helped bury them?"

"Correct."

Katie nodded. "_Thanks._" She said, with some sincerity.

I shrugged. "It was the least I could do."

I checked the watch that I had put on back in my flat. "We had better get back to Waterloo if we want to make it for ten-thirty."

Effy stood up, and surprisingly, Katie held her hand out to me. I took it, and she pulled me up onto my feet. "Cheers."

"Yeah, don't go getting any ideas, alright?"

"Oh, never. Besides, I fancy your sister_ much_ more..." I smirked.

"_Bitch_."

"That's the spirit." I said. "Come on. Let's get going."

A few minutes after we started walking back the way we came from the city, Emily slid her hand into mine and squeezed it gently. I squeezed it back, and looked over to her. She smiled weakly at me, and I knew it was one of thanks. A thank you, for helping her through something so hard, I couldn't even begin to imagine how she must be feeling. Still, I suppose her hand in mine was as comforting for her as it was being for me. I was starting to feel a little affection for this petite girl walking beside me. The thing was, I don't think it was all sympathy. In the silence that mounted as we walked, I couldn't help but think of how nice her body had felt next to mine the night before in the station.

Sometime later, we had made it back into the main part of the city, and were walking back over the bridge across the river, towards Waterloo station. The strangest thing was that whatever had come to decimate the city had disappeared, like it had never even been there. All that remained was the destruction they left behind. We saw not a single other soul, other than ourselves as we made our way back, until Thomas caught up with us at the Waterloo end of the bridge.

"How did you go, Thomas?" I asked.

"There is not much left of where I used to live." He said. "But my flat was still standing, luckily enough. I see you got lucky, also?"

"Sort of. Mine and Effy's place was still standing, so we picked up some supplies." I explained.

"What about your family?" Thomas asked, turning to Emily and Katie. Their gutted looks told him all he needed to know. "Je suis désolée." He said, respectfully. "It is French, for I am sorry."

"Thank you." Emily said, quietly.

"Have you seen Freddie, or Cook?" I asked.

"No. You are the only people I have seen for hours."

"Strange." I said. "Right, let's get back to the station, then. We can rest a bit before we go again."

* * *

**A/N#2: So, Emily and Katie are orphaned, and most of London is dust.**

**What awaits our friends in Bristol? And how long is it going to take them to get there?**

**Stay tuned...**

**Until next time... Reviews most welcome...!**

**~GN~ xo**


	6. Let's Go

**A/N: Chapter six, then...**

**We learn a little more about Emily's experience during the night of chaos, and the group set off for Bristol.**

**No more clues, you shall have to read the rest.**

**On with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Boo. Any and all typos are a total fabrication.**

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**(Naomi POV)**

We were sitting in the subway of the station, when Cook came down the stairs, carrying a rucksack of his own.

"Your place was still there, then?" I asked quietly, as I followed him into the office and he placed his bag by the door. Emily was resting on the sofa, curled up under one of the blankets. I motioned for him to be quiet.

"Aye." He replied. "No power, though. Scrounged what I could out of the cupboards, as well as some clothes. How about you?"

"Yeah, same. Our flat was still there, so we grabbed what we could."

"What about Katie and Emily?"

I sighed, deeply, and shook my head. "Their house was gone. Their parents and brother, too."

"Oh, _man_. That sucks."

"To say the least." I said. "Emily is so exhausted from it all, I told her to try and get some rest."

"And Katie?"

"Effy is with her. But Emily... She had it worse." I said, sadly, looking towards her sleeping form on the sofa.

Cook looked over at Emily's sleeping form. "How so?"

I quietly explained what had happened in Chiswick. Cook listened, with curious interest, and when I had finished speaking, he nodded his head, sadly. "Poor kid."

"Do you have any family, Cook?" I asked.

He was silent for a few short moments, before he shook his head. "_Not anymore._" He said, in a low whisper.

"I'm sorry."

He shrugged, and lit a cigarette. "Not much I can do about it now, but...cheers." He said, as he exhaled. "No sign of Freddie?"

"No." I said, checking my watch. "And it's well after eleven now."

"Hmm. Did you notice anything unusual on your journey?"

I nodded. "Older buildings have survived. I think...anything post 1940s is gone. My flat is in an old building. Thomas's flat survived, too."

"I think you might be right, Blondie. So did mine." He replied. "That and the buildings like that palace across the river, and such. Even this station. Still standing, even though the windows are blown out." He leaned against the desk. "You still heading up to Bristol?"

I nodded. "Did you see any intact cars around?"

He shook his head. "No, but... I might know where to find some."

"I hope so. I'd rather that than walk to Bristol. It's a long way."

"And you want to go as soon as, yeah?"

"_Preferably._ I have a feeling last night wasn't the last of it." I said.

"What makes you say that?"

I shrugged. "Just a _bad_ feeling I have."

"I agree." Said Effy, who had appeared in the doorway.

I looked at my best friend, noting her serious eyes. "What do you think, Eff?"

"Same as you. I _don't_ think last night was a one-off. And I think we need to get _out_ of here... as quick as we can."

"Well, if the place I'm thinking of is intact... You'll get a car. That'll cut down on travel time north."

"What about Freddie?" Effy asked.

I looked at my watch. "We give him till midday. If he's not here by then, we go without him." I said. "If anyone disagrees... Too bad." Cook and Effy looked at me. "I'm_ sorry,_ guys. The world has changed. If not the_ entire_ world, then England. I_ have_ to get to Bristol, and I'm_ not_ fucking around, waiting for stragglers, yeah?"

Effy nodded. "That's fair, I suppose."

"How's Katie?" I asked.

"She's numb. Thomas is with her." Effy replied. "And Emily?"

"I'm ok." Emily said, rolling over and sitting up, rubbing her eyes. "How long have I been asleep?" She asked, yawning.

"About an hour." I said, kneeling beside her and stroking my fingers through her fringe. "How are you feeling?"

The look she gave me was full of sadness. "I'll manage. I _have_ to."

"Ok." I nodded. "We're going to leave at twelve, yeah? So whatever you need to do...do it."

She nodded. "Uhm... Do you have a shirt I can borrow?"

"Yeah, sure." I said, going to my rucksack and fishing through it to find a t-shirt. I handed it to her. "It might be a bit big for you, but..."

"It's ok. I just don't want to be wearing _this_ one anymore." She said, standing up and walking out of the office.

The three of us were silent for a few moments, until Effy looked first at me, and then to the doorway. "What?" I asked.

"She needs you." Effy said.

"What? What can _I_ do? I helped her bury her family. I don't know _what_ I can say to her."

Effy stared at me blankly. "You don't have to say anything, Naoms. Just_ be there_ for her."

I sighed, and shrugged my shoulders, walking out of the office and making my way into the bathroom. Emily didn't notice me at first, because she was pulling her t-shirt over her head. She was wearing a white bra with a pattern of little red hearts on the fabric. It was absurdly_ cute_, for someone who had gone through so much pain in such a short space of time.

"Getting a good perve in, then?" Her husky, tired voice said, interrupting my thoughts.

I shook my head. "Sorry..._uhm_... I didn't mean to-"

"It's ok." She said, shaking her head, and pulling the white tee over her head. She tucked it in as best as she could, but it still looked ridiculous on her. She looked down at it and laughed. "A piglet? Bit_ odd_, don't you think?"

A small smirk appeared on the corner of my lips. "My mum gave it to me. She had it made for an animal rights protest, years ago." I explained. "On you, though, it looks much more adorable."

Emily blushed, and smiled weakly back at me. "I'll take that compliment."

We stood awkwardly for a few moments, before I spoke again. "How are you holding up?" I asked, walking closer to her, and placing my hands on her shoulders. Her expression changed into one of blank hurt, almost desolate, in a sense. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her close to me. It seemed like the right thing to do.

"I don't think it has sunk in. It doesn't feel real." She said, almost in a whisper.

"I know._ None_ of this seems real. It's not just you." I replied.

Emily sighed, and it was deep and shaky. She nestled her head into my shoulder, and reached up to thread the ends of my hair through her fingertips. "I was so scared last night, Naomi. It wasn't just because I had lost Katie for a while." She paused, and then wriggled her way out of my arms, leaning her hands on the sink. "Can you keep a secret, Naomi?"

"A secret?"

"Something I don't want_ anyone_ else to know. But you... I trust you." She said.

I shrugged. "Ok...what is it?" I asked, expecting something completely trivial.

She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I came close to dying last night. Right before I made it into the station... I was running like hell. It must have been just after I'd lost Katie, everything happened so quick, I..." She paused. "Anyway... I _saw_ it. One of those..._creatures._ It was...huge...and right in front of me, and it... _Skewered_ three people...right in front of my eyes. They were running towards me, and then they just stopped...they made the worst sound as they were attacked... This man, he had such an awful look on his face...half fear, half shock... But also this sense that...he knew he was dead."

"_Emily_..." I said, placing my hands on her shoulders.

"His eyes...they_ begged_ me to help him, and I did nothing, Naomi." She said, her voice sounding more broken now. "I stood there in shock, and fear as the creature drew back its huge arm and saw all three of them drop to the ground right where they stood, bleeding out. Dying." She turned to look at me, with tears in her hurt eyes. "I couldn't_ save_ them." She whispered. "I ran, after that." She sniffled. "I found myself in the station, in the dark...and the first hand I reached for was yours."

I pulled Emily close to me and hugged her tightly as she started to cry again. "Shhh..." I whispered, hoping it would soothe some of the aching inside she so obviously felt. "There wasn't anything you could have done, Emily. Except save _yourself._"

"For _what_, Naomi?" She asked, weakly. "Except for Katie, I've lost my family."

I gently lifted he head off my chest, and looked into her eyes. "Emily, I know it seems hopeless, but you're alive, and that's _something_. Katie needs you. Sure, she's a pain in the arse, but you are_ all_ she has, and she is all _you_ have." I paused. "And...for what it's worth...you have me. I know we don't really know each other, but... We need to stick together, now. I'm_ sorry_ about your home, your family. I know you must miss them."

Emily's eyes closed tightly, and she sniffled, nodding. "Yeah, even my mother who hated me." She mumbled.

"Oh, I'm sure she didn't_ hate_ you?"

She shook her head. "Doesn't matter, now. I'll tell you about it...if we survive."

"I'll hold you to that." I laughed softly, and kissed her forehead. "The best thing you and Katie can do is come with me to Bristol. I don't know what's happened there, but if all this devastation is confined to London... Well, the best thing I can promise you is a comfortable bed and a decent meal."

"Your mum won't mind?"

I shook my head, and swallowed. "Assuming she's still alive... She's very big on hospitality." I said. "You'll all be welcome. Even _Katie_." Emily gave me a brave smile, and I gently rubbed her shoulders. I checked my watch. It was nearing twelve o'clock already. "Come on, yeah? We need to get going."

Emily nodded, and folded up her shirt. I took it, and we walked out of the toilets.

We made it back into the office, and it put Emily's shirt into my rucksack.

"Gettin' close to twelve, Blondie..." Cook said.

"I know." I said. "No sign of Freddie?"

"No." Effy said, from the sofa.

I nodded. "Right. We go without him, then." I said hoisting the rucksack onto my shoulder, and walking out to the platform. Katie and Thomas were sitting on one of the benches, chatting quietly. Effy, Emily and Cook had followed me out, and at the sight of us all filing out of the office, Thomas looked up.

"We are ready to go?" He asked, in his gentle French accent.

"Yes." I said.

"What about Freddie?" Katie asked.

I looked around. "Do you see Freddie?" Katie looked at me blankly. "Neither do I. He obviously couldn't get back here, and I'm not waiting here anymore than I have to. It_ sucks,_ but that's how it is." I said. "Cook says he knows where we _might_ be able to get a vehicle to take us to Bristol."

"Really?" Katie asked. "What, like a car rental?"

"Yeah, we can totally get a rental vehicle just outside London. There's a dealer still operating." Cook said.

Katie raised an eyebrow. "You're...being sarcastic, aren't you?"

"Got it one, dinky tits." Cook smirked.

Emily smirked slightly, as I rolled my eyes. "Alright, let's get going. Cook, lead the way to our hopes of getting some wheels."

The six of us left the station, filing out into the streets of the devastated city that was once London. We had walked about half an hour, through more desolated, deserted streets, that were strewn with bodies. I wish I was joking. I'd like to tell you that I was joking, I really would. But...I can't. Again, we were mostly silent about the devastation around us, it was like we were almost in denial. Effy took all of it in, with those serious blue eyes of hers. It was like she took in every twisted, severed corpse, filing it away in her mind. I'd never known anything like that to affect her, really, even though she'd had some dark thoughts.

Katie and Thomas stayed together, the dark skinned boy had a passive look on his face, but also one that said something to me that I found disturbing. _I've seen this before_, it said. _I know what this is like_. Katie's face was drained of most of its colour, and her eyes looked_ extremely_ sad. Almost empty. She kept looking at Emily, who was standing very close to me, in fact. Katie looked worried as she looked at her sister, and if couldn't tell if she was worried about her state of mind, or worried about what I said about fancying Emily. _That_ was an offhand comment at the time, but really... We'd been through something horrible, which so far culminated in burying her parents. I don't regret helping her...she couldn't have done it alone, that's for certain. It wasn't the way I'd have _liked_ to get close to her, but I did feel a need to comfort her, and a closeness to her, in some way.

Cook went ahead, looking around the desolate wasteland of our city with a keen eye, as if he was trying to remember just where he was. "Here...this looks like it could be it." He said, stopping outside what looked to be just another partially ruined building.

"_This_ place?" I asked.

"Yeah..." He said, looking up at the large gate. "If I can find a way in... Wait here." He said, climbing over some rubble towards a smashed window.

"Be careful!" I called, as he crawled through the window.

"Always am, darlin'" He grinned, disappearing out of sight.

I walked over to a low wall and say down, putting the rucksack down at my feet. I looked at my shoes, trying not to look around me at the truly horrible landscape the city had become. Emily sat next to me and clasped her hands around her knees.

"How are you doing?" I asked, softly. Emily shrugged, indifferently. I reached over and took her hand into mine, squeezing it gently. There wasn't anything I could say that would make it better... I knew that. But sometimes, to touch is the one thing that can make a bad situation seem better...even if only by a small amount. As she squeezed my hand back, we heard the sound of metal scraping against metal, and the gate began to slide open, and Cook stuck his head between the gap.

"Told ya!" He grinned. "Come on then, Blondie... Let's pick a chariot!"

I stood up, my hand leaving Emily's as we all followed him in past the gates. We were in a huge car park, of which the back part was caved in, probably from the collapse of the building above it, but there were at least six vehicles that were untouched by rubble.

"This looks promising..." I said.

"So, I figure we check each of these for fuel...the one with the most amount of gas, we take, yeah?" Cook suggested.

"Seems like the best plan." Emily said, her small voice still by my side.

I nodded. "Yeah."

Cook, Effy and I checked the vehicles. It was Effy who found the one with the highest amount of fuel. It was a black recent model Jeep which looked like an SUV, almost, and had five seats, as well as a large storage space in the back.

"Well, it'll do the trick...so long as someone doesn't mind sitting in the back." Effy said.

"I will." Thomas said. "I have sat in worse vehicles in the Congo."

Again, I nodded. "Right."

"How do we get into it, then?" Katie asked.

"Leave it to me!" Cook said, hunting around the rubble for something. He eventually pulled out a piece of wire, and spent a few minutes twisting it into a hook shape. He went over to the driver's side door on the Jeep, and slid the hook between the door and the window.

"_Seriously?_" Katie asked. "Great... Now you're a fucking _criminal?_"

"Fractured the occasional law, now and again, Katiekins... But Cookie's been a good boy for a while."

"Right." Katie scoffed, earning her a glare from Emily.

Cook fiddled with the wire, and got the door open, without setting off any alarm. He sat in the driver's seat and bent down, fiddling, I assume, with the ignition. Soon enough, he twisted something or other, and the engine burst into life. It was the single most encouraging sound I'd heard all day, and it brought a genuine smile to my face.

"Smashin'!" Cook exclaimed, a giddy grin on his face, as he cut the motor. "Well, Blondie... Guess you're driving, huh?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Everybody in..." I said, as Cook got out of the driver's seat. Katie and Effy got into the back seat with Cook between them, Thomas in the back section, and Emily and I in the front seat. Emily and I looked at each other, and for the first time, I registered a hopeful smile on her face. "Well...We're on our way to Bristol."

"Yeah..." Emily said. "Let's go."

* * *

**A/N#2: Ooh... What lies outside the city limits?**

**Tune in next time, for 'as the devastation turns'...**

**Reviews welcome! and much appreciated.**

**~GN~ xo**


	7. Onward

**A/N: I must be in a writing mood today... Seeing as I cranked this chapter out so quick, it's almost as though my creative whateveritis has sparked itself back into its former way of being. The group finally leave the devastation of London, and head further afield.**

**Some of you asked "what happened to Freddie?" ... And we the answer to that question, as well.**

**So, on with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. But apparently, I own an active imagination. Any and all typos should have been incinerated...**

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**(Naomi POV)**

It was slow going, driving through the decimated streets of what was once the great city of London. Rubble and bodies lined most of the streets, as well as thick layers, _piles_ even, of the dust of what once was. The motor of our Jeep was the only sound in the eerie silence, and I was concentrating on the road ahead, to make sure I didn't drive into anything that would render our preciously purloined vehicle unusable. I had taken some photos on my phone, and just hoped once we got to Bristol I'd be able to charge it again, as the battery was half flat as it was.

It was Emily, whose wide brown eyes spotted something that made her call out in shock, and had me slamming on the brakes. "_STOP!_"

We all lurched forward in our seats, and Thomas swore in French in the very back. "Sorry Thomas." I called, as I shut off the engine. "What is it?" I asked Emily, who had a look on her face somewhere between shock and horror. She pointed and stared ahead. I followed her line of sight to a steel girder that was sticking out of the ground, twisted and warped. It had obviously been part of a building that had been destroyed. My eyes widened, as I saw what was hanging from part of the metal by a length of old, worn rope. I unlatched the seatbelt, and moved to get out of the car. Emily's hand on mine held me back, and my gaze drifted down to the grip she had on me.

"Naomi..." She whispered.

"I have to at least take a look, Emily." I said, softly.

"I'm coming with you, then." She muttered, unlatching her own seatbelt, opening the door and getting out. I followed her, my shoes crunching the dust under my feet, as we both made our way towards the familiar looking body that was hanging from the worn rope.

"_Freddie_." Emily said, the wobble returning to her voice, as I grabbed the feet that were hanging in the air, barely swinging in the slight breeze and turned them towards us. The tall, lanky boy was hanging from his neck by the rope, an almost serene look on his lifeless face. His death must have been almost instant. There was a folded note taped to his chest. I reached up and peeled the note from his chest, and opened it up, and began to read it out aloud.

"_To anyone that finds this: my family is gone. My father, my sister...both mutilated by those...things. The city is destroyed, and who knows what else... What left do I have to live for? Life has been good until now, and now all that remains is despair. To the people I met in the station, thank you for making my last hours on this earth bearable. Good luck to you all, I fear you will need it. I'm sorry._

_Freddie McClair._"

"_Jesus._" Katie said from behind us. I turned around to see the other four of our merry group standing a few feet from us. They all looked as shocked as Emily did, except for Effy, whose face remained passive. I folded up the note, placed it in my pocket, turned and began walking back to the Jeep. "Where are you going? We're not going to just_ leave_ him there?" Katie called after me.

I turned back and glared at her. "I'm not burying _anyone else_ today." I said, flatly. "If _you_ want to break a nail doing it... Be my guest." I said, turning back to the Jeep. By the time I had made it into the driver's seat, the rest were following. Without anymore words, they all piled into the truck, and buckled themselves in. I started the engine, and began to drive carefully out of what remained of the city.

It took us another hour to get to the outskirts of the city, driving in solemn silence. The horrors that we had seen kept us stunned into a sort of quiet that none of us seemed inclined to break. All of us were young, and with the exception of Thomas, had_ never_ seen real destruction on such a scale. I had always wanted to live in London, the charm of the big city luring me from my home of Bristol. It represented a better life, and opportunity, to me. Now, it was gone, destroyed into nothing in a single night of terror. A night that I feared was_ not_ the last. I couldn't even explain that thought. But the world was a large place, even with the sprawling expanse that London was. There were many major cities that represented the same expanse, and while it had taken one night to bring _that_ to its knees, I didn't know then that the same thing had occurred in most major cities...simultaneously.

Once we got out of London though, it was an _entirely_ different story. The devastation of the city landscape eventually gave way to green rolling hills, and the road became clear. Eventually, we came to a sign that designated the locality of Reading. I stopped the truck atop a hill that overlooked the town.

"_What_ the...?" I muttered, half in surprise, and half in shock. "Thomas? At the top of my rucksack, there's a pair of binoculars. Would you mind?"

"Of course." He replied, opening the bag and pulling them out. He handed them to Effy, who handed them to me over the seat. I got out of the truck, and out the binoculars to my eyes. From my vantage point, I could see that the town below was still standing, untouched. And what's more, through the binoculars, I could see what London was now devoid of.

_**Life.**_

"What is it?" Emily's soft voice said, next to me. I handed her the binoculars. She took a look through them, and gasped, almost dropping the binoculars in the process. "They're...it's like..."

"_Nothing_ happened there." I whispered. "Come on. We have to see if they know anything."

We got back into the truck, and is placed the binoculars onto the dashboard. "Naoms? What is it?"

I turned to Effy. "The town is active." I said. "Maybe they don't know what happened in London."

"_Oh._"

I turned the engine on, and began following the road into town. What I had seen on the hill became more apparent as we traveled the road. Life went on, as though nothing had changed. I looked around the landscape. "What are you looking for?" Emily asked.

"A police station." I replied. I pulled in at a service station. "Wait here, I'm going to ask the attendant." I said, getting out of the truck. I walked into the station, hearing the little bell tinkling as I opened the door.

"Afternoon, miss. How can I help you?" A short man asked.

"Can you tell me where the police station is?" I asked.

"Certainly. It's on Castle street. Left at the end of the road, and then straight on." He said. "Erm, if you don't mind my saying, miss... You look like you've been through hell." He said, looking me up and down. "Spot of trouble?"

I looked down, realising I was still wearing a bloody, dirt covered shirt. "Uh...something like that. I come from...London." I said. "What _was_ London, anyway."

"London? What happened in London?"

"Have you seen the news at all today?" I asked.

He looked at me oddly, and shook his head. "No, the BBC was out this morning. I thought it was strange, I've never seen it happen before. I haven't been able to get a morning paper, either. There hasn't been the usual delivery."

I stared at him. "Did you try and find any other news source? Sky TV? The internet?"

"I don't have the internet at home, I'm afraid. And I don't get Sky TV." He said. "Has something happened?"

"I'm afraid so. Look, I need to go..." I said.

"Alright, I'm coming too, though. If something's going on, I need to know. I've got family in London."

"Oh." I said, as I lowered my eyes, and took my phone out of my pocket. My hands shook as I brought up the photo app and handed him the phone. "I took these photos this morning. Sir, I'm sorry, London is gone."

"_Gone?_ But how?" He said, looking at the photos in shock.

"If you want to come, I'll explain at the station." I said.

He nodded, and handed me back my phone. "I'll just lock up. You can follow me." He picked up his keys and I followed him outside, where he turned the OPEN sign to CLOSED, and locked the door. "My name is Bert, by the way."

"Naomi." I said. I went back to the truck, and got into the driver's seat, as Bert got into his own car.

"Well?" Cook asked.

"Bert...the attendant... is going to lead us to the police station." I said. "He said the BBC is off the air, but couldn't tell me if any of the other TV networks are."

"A lot of the UK ones are in London, so I'd assume that to also be the case." Effy said.

"I agree." I said, turning the ignition once more.

We followed Bert to the police station, which was only a short drive, even with more traffic than we had seen in London. When we pulled into the station car park, the engine fell silent, and I turned to the rest of the car. "I suggest we _all_ go in. We all have a story to tell." I said. A round of nods agreed with me, and we all got out of the truck.

The seven of us walked into the station, and I walked up to the desk. The sergeant was behind it, as well as a constable, both of them peering at a computer screen.

"I don't understand it, Mike. I can't get anything to work, not the database system, nor the internet." The sergeant said. "You're a bit of a PC geek, what do you make of it?"

"I don't know, Tom. I couldn't get anything on the web this morning, either."

"Well, try calling IT, they might have an answer." Tom said.

""I've tried that all morning, I've had no answer. Just a message saying the lines are down."

"Bloody hell. How are we supposed to-" he said, pausing when he looked up and saw us standing there. "_Oh,_ good afternoon. How can I help you?"

I stared at him. "You've got no internet?"

"What? Oh... Minor police problem." The sergeant said, waving it off. "You're here to report something?"

"_Something,_ yes." I sighed. "My name is Naomi Campbell. This is Emily, Katie, Cook, Effy and Thomas." I said, motioning to everyone. "And Bert-"

"Oh, hello Bert. How goes it?" Mike said.

"Mike."

"Have either of you seen the news this morning?" I asked. "_Any_ news?"

"No, the BBC was out. Very strange, I don't ever remember it going out before." Tom said. "You all look like you've been in a spot of bother." He added, casting his eyes over us.

"We've come from London." Effy said. "Something happened there last night."

"Like what?" Mike asked. "I tried calling our IT about the internet...but couldn't get through, and they're based in London."

"Yeah..." I said. "Something_ terrible_ happened in London last night. The city...it's gone."

"_Gone?_ Have you lot been taking drugs?" The sergeant laughed.

"_No._" We all murmured.

"I work for the railways." Cook spoke up. "I was on shift last night when it all happened."

I took my phone out of my pocket. "I took these photos this morning." I said, handing my phone to the desk sergeant. "Do you see the one of the Houses of Parliament?"

The sergeant studied the picture closely. "It looks like there was a fire..."

"A white hot ray of light hit that...last night. Something attacked the city, coming from the sky. Creatures were in the streets...tall, wiry and horrible. It was chaos, people were fleeing, buildings were being destroyed. Not many people made it, except for us, we haven't seen anyone. There was another boy with us, but he... He took his own life." I explained. "Older buildings survived, but the newer ones..." I shook my head. The sergeant and the constable looked at me, dumbstruck. "We all took shelter in Waterloo station last night."

"Is this a joke?"

I took my phone from the desk sergeant and switched to the last picture I had taken, of a corpse strewn street, and shoved it under his nose. "I didn't take these in_ fucking_ Afghanistan, mate! That was this morning, in the_ middle_ of fucking London! Take a car there if you don't fucking _believe_ us!" I yelled. The two police men looked at me, stunned, and then scanned the group of us with our eyes. I sighed. "Look, can I use your phone?" I asked, trying to keep calm. "None of our mobiles have signal."

"Neither does mine." Said the constable. "Go right ahead."

I picked up the receiver, and thanked Christ that I heard a dial tone. My fingers flitted across the buttons, dialing my mum's number in Bristol. I got a distinct feeling of relief when I heard the phone ringing on the other end. "Come on..." I muttered, and then the line was picked up.

"Hello?"

"_Mum!_" I said, a wide smile crossing my lips. "Oh my god I'm_ so_ glad to hear your voice!"

"_Naomi? Hello dear, how are you? It's not like you to call on a Saturday. Not as hungover as you usually are?_" She laughed.

I started to laugh with relief, and then stopped myself. "You're alright, then?" I asked.

"_Yes, of course, dear. Why wouldn't I be?_"

"Have you seen the news at all?"

"_No, it's the funniest thing... None of the television stations are working. Radio, either. It's very strange._" Mum explained.

I nodded. "Yeah, I can explain that. Look, Effy and I are coming. And we've got a few people with us. Something... Something terrible has happened in London."

"_Terrible?_"

"Yeah. I'll explain when we get there...should be another hour or so, but I had to make sure you were ok." I said.

"_Oh. Well, ok then...I'll make sure there's some tea on._" She said, and I rolled my eyes out of habit.

"Mum?"

"_Yes?_"

"It's good to hear your voice." I said, my voice cracking.

"_It's good to hear yours, too. See you soon, then?_"

"Yeah. Stay safe. Bye, mum." I said, hanging up the phone. I looked up at both the sergeant and the constable. "Thank you." I said. "My mother lives in Bristol, and I _had_ to be sure she was safe. That's where we are headed now."

"Miss Campbell, you...weren't joking about London?" The sergeant asked me.

I shook my head. "Like I said, feel free to drive there and see for yourself. I'm an _honest_ person, sergeant. My mother raised me that way. My friend and I saw so much destruction last night." I said, looking at Effy. "And Emily and Katie have lost their family."

"Naomi helped me bury them." Emily said, once again sounding so small and scared.

"That's the _last_ thing I would ever joke about." I said, flatly. "The city is gone."

"What do we do?" The constable asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. If there's anyone left in London at all, they have one hell of a clean up job." I said. "We are all going to Bristol. Who knows what, after that."

"You should stay." The constable said.

"I _can't._" I said. "_We_...can't. We have_ nowhere_ else to go, except for Bristol. We have with us virtually nothing but the clothes on our backs. I promised these people here shelter, and somewhere to sleep tonight."

"I see." The sergeant said.

"Sergeant... You may _think_ I'm crazy, but I have nothing to lie about. I also have a bad feeling that what happened there last night will happen again."

"You think so?"

I nodded. "Go and look there." I urged him. "You'll see I'm telling the truth. London may be gone, but there are _other_ cities that can be affected. Other cities that I...fear already _have_ been." I said, sadly.

"I'll go." Said Bert.

"You too, Mike." The sergeant said.

"Right, sarge." The constable said, grabbing his hat.

"Is there a number where we can reach you?" The sergeant asked.

I nodded. "Do you have a pen?" He handed me one and a block of note paper. I began to write down my mum's phone number. "We have no mobile signal, as I told you. But we will be at this number within the next hour and a half or so. You can reach me there." I placed the own back on the counter, tore off the paper and handed it to him.

"Thank you. Are you _sure_ you won't reconsider staying here?"

"No. We are all very tired, and we need a decent meal. Though we appreciate the concern." I said.

The sergeant nodded. "Well, good luck, then."

I nodded. "Thanks. Come on, guys."

Half an hour later, we had been on the road for twenty minutes, when Katie finally spoke up again. "How can that town be untouched?"

"I don't know, Katie." I replied.

"All that destruction...and it's just London?"

"I don't know." I repeated.

"Do you know anything?" She scoffed.

I sighed. "Remember what I said about trying my patience?"

She was silent for a few moments. "But-"

"Katie, _don't._" Emily said. "Naomi knows as much as we do."

"It is so green here." Thomas said, from the back of the truck. "I have never seen such green grass before."

"Not much grass in...where is it you're from, mate?" Cook asked.

"The Congo. And, no."

The truck fell silent again for a few more minutes. "I don't understand it." I said. "What do they want?"

"_They?_" Emily asked.

"Those..._things_. Those tall, screaming creatures that gang-fucked London with enough alien firepower to incinerate a city with a population of eight_ million!_" I snapped. Emily looked across at me with a hurt expression. I sighed again. "_I'm sorry._ Lack of sleep, lack of food... I get cranky."

"It's fine."

"No, it _isn't_. I don't mean to take it out on you. It isn't fair." I said.

"Apology accepted."

"God, would you two like a room?" Katie scoffed.

"Go_ fuck_ yourself, Katie." I said, glaring at her in the rear view mirror.

We drove the rest of the way mostly in silence. We were tired, and hungry, and the tension between all of us was thicker than it should have been because of that. I kept driving, concentrating on the road as best as I could, given my fatigue. Emily did offer to drive, but I declined, seeing as I didn't want to fall asleep while I gave her directions. Effy knew where we were going, of course, but she was already asleep in the back seat, her head resting against the window, and I thought it wise not to bother her.

Finally, we made it to the city limits of Bristol, and I navigated through the streets until we pulled up in front of my mum's place, still intact with it's faded yellow door. Effy had woken up as soon as I shut the truck's motor off, and the six of us got out and stretched our legs. Emily, Effy and I took the luggage out of the back of the truck, and then I heard the front door of the house open.

"Gina." Effy said, as my mum came out to greet us.

"Hello, Effy. Jesus _Christ_, you all look like you're dead tired and have seen ghosts!"

I walked up to my mum and dropped my rucksack at my feet, pulling her into my arms for a tight hug. Gina laughed in surprise. "Ok, who are you and what have you done with my daughter?"

"Oh, it's good to see you, mum. It's good to know you're alive." I said, relief still flooding through me.

She pulled back and placed her hands on my shoulders. "Come on. You all look like you can do with a meal, or at least some tea." We all filed into the house, and mum closed the door behind us. We took seats at the kitchen table, Thomas and Cook sitting on the sideboard and Effy leaning against the wall. Gina poured us all some tea, and sat down with Emily, Katie and I at the table. "So...tell me a story."

Together, we all related our account of what had happened in London. Gina listened with curiosity, and shock. After an hour, the phone rang, and Gina got up to get it. "Hello? Yes, this is the Campbell residence... Oh, I see. Yes, she's been here a while, hang on." She looked at me. "Naomi, love it's for you. Reading police?"

I stood up and took the phone from her. "Naomi speaking?"

"_Naomi, it's Sergeant Frost._"

"Hello, sergeant."

"_Bert and the constable have returned._"

"I see. So they know I wasn't lying?"

He sighed. "_Correct. You do understand, though. Your story did sound crazy._"

"Not as crazy as living through it." I said, dryly.

"_And Bristol?_" He asked.

"Intact, as if nothing happened." I said. "Look, sergeant, I don't know how you are going to do it, but you have to let people know something may come."

"_I was not so sure, but I think you may be right. The constable found some survivors, like yourself. They corroborated your story._"

"Other people_ survived?_" I asked, looking around the room at the shocked faces staring back at me. We had not seen another_ single_ soul in London, except for Freddie, and we all knew what had become of him.

"_Yes, about a hundred. I asked the constable to see about chartering a bus to get them here. He's off doing that now." The sergeant said. "You are safe, then...all of you?_"

"Yeah, safe and as well as can be expected. Listen... If something does come tonight... Underground is the safest place. Your constable saw London. We only survived because we were in the tube station."

"_Right. Thanks for the tip._"

"I'd better go. We're all pretty tired." I said.

"_I understand. I'll call again tomorrow morning. Stay safe, Naomi._"

"Thanks...you too." I said, hanging up the phone.

I turned back to the group. "They found _survivors_ in all that?" Cook asked.

I nodded. "Around a hundred people. The sergeant is going to get a bus to transport them all to Reading."

"Christ." Cook said. "Well, what do we do now?"

"You're all welcome to stay." Mum said. "I'll cook us all something to eat, and you all need to get some rest."

"Are you sure it's no trouble, Mrs Campbell?" Emily asked.

"Oh, not at all, love. And call me Gina."

"I'm going out for a cigarette." Effy said casually, walking to the back door.

"Me too." Cook said, following her out.

"I could do with a shower." Emily said. "If that's alright?"

"Of course, love!" Gina smiled.

"I'll get you a towel." I said, standing up. Emily followed me out of the kitchen and up the stairs. I opened the linen cupboard and pulled out a towel for her, and then pulled a few more out, going into the bathroom and placing them on the counter. "I'll get you a change of clothes, too." I said.

"Thanks." Emily said, softly. I smiled politely, and went to leave the bathroom to give her some privacy, but her hand on mine held me back. She looked down at it, and rubbed her thumb across the back of it. "_Uhm_... You've done a lot for me today. I know Katie can be rude and doesn't really show it, but she is grateful that you..._you know_." I nodded. "Whatever happens, I want you to know we both thank you for it."

"I do, Emily." I replied. I looked into her warm eyes, and before I knew it, she leaned up and her lips kissed mine softly. The gentle nature of the kiss surprised me, and also the fact that I responded to it with the same tentative grace. Her hand reached up to my neck, and I pulled away leaning my head against hers.

"_Sorry_, I..."

I reached up for her hand and took it in mine. "Don't be. I didn't mind it." I said, with a gentle smile.

"_Naomi!_" I heard Gina calling from downstairs. The two of us sprang apart almost instantly, and the shock of it made me shiver. Emily blushed like she had been caught in the act.

"I'd better..."

"Yeah..."

I shut the door behind me as I left, and called downstairs. "Coming, mum!"

* * *

**A/N: So, yeah... I killed Freddie off. Sorry?**

**And I bet you're all sighing as much relief as Naomi is to know Gina is safe and sound...**

**More eventually...not too sure what happens next.**

**Reviews welcome... As always.**

**Until next time...**

**~GN~ xo**


	8. News From Further Afield

**A/N: Hello...!**

**Once again, many apologies for not having updated...blame the stupidity of politics, which once again has had my mind occupied. I really am trying to write more, but sometimes it's a bit hard.**

**This chapter is for my partner in crime mynameislizzie, because she's awesome, no matter what other (small minded) people will say. And also because she's requested many a time via PM that I write MOAR. hehe.**

**Anyway... On with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. But I, like Lizzie, own an active imagination, and am prone to indulging it. If you don't like it, then by all means fuck off and find something else to read, and if you're going to read everything that I spend time writing and then anonymously trash it all as shit because I wrote something you didn't agree with, it makes me wonder why you kept reading, when you were warned what the subject matter would be! Some people, honestly... Any and all typos should be shot on sight...**

* * *

**(Naomi POV)**

Hours later, we had all eaten our fill, after Gina cooked up a huge batch of spaghetti. We took it in turns to shower and change, and not even Katie complained about the pyjama pants and t-shirt I gave her from the wardrobe in my room to wear.

"Thanks." She said quietly, as I handed them to her. What she said next shocked me even more. "Uhm... I'm sorry for being a bitch."

"It's ok." I shrugged.

"No... It_ isn't_. You've been very considerate... You could have just left and come here alone... Or just you and Effy. But you brought us somewhere safe... And with what happened in Chiswick... Well, I'm grateful, y'know? So's Emily."

I nodded. "I'm sorry too. I was harsh... Some of the things I said..."

She shook her head. "It was what I needed. I was trying to _ignore_ what was happening, you know? I guess it was shock, or something."

"It's kind of hard, don't you think?" I asked. "So much devastation."

"I know." Katie said, bowing her head. "But you... I've always been protective of Emily. She's my only sister, and... Well, she's all I have_ left_ now, isn't she? I was in so much shock I lashed out at you, and you didn't deserve it. And you've protected her, and us... so... Thank you." She said, before picking up the clothes and walking out of my room.

I went downstairs, and now that it had started to get dark, Gina, Emily and Effy were in the sitting room. Cook and Thomas were in the kitchen, so I wandered into the sitting room, where the television was on, and it was actually tuned to something watchable. It just so happened that it was a news broadcast. I sat down as the talking head dribbled on. Effy had the remote in her hand and turned the volume up.

"..._and reports are coming in about an incident that has happened in London. Details are scarce at the moment, but we have had reports of some type of terrorist attack that has happened, which appears to have destroyed much of the city's buildings, from the city centre, right to the outskirts._" Footage began to be displayed of the ruins of the city. "_This footage was taken by our news crew this afternoon, and shows the complete and total devastation. We cross live now, to our field reporter by radio link. Tom, what's the situation?_"

The screen continued to show the footage as a voice over crackled into existence. "_Chelsea, what we are seeing here is completely horrific. There are bodies littering the streets, and many of the buildings that once stood have crumbled into rubble. This of course, was brought to our attention by several calls to our station today from relatives of those living in London who had been unable to contact their family this morning. For some it was a routine phone call that they make every morning that went unanswered, however it was a call from the Reading Police which alerted us to a greater tragedy. Their officers explained in some chilling detail what they had witnessed, and what was initially reported to them was backed up by their investigation, as well as reports from some one hundred survivors that were found._" The reporter said.

"_Tom, the devastation we are seeing in these pictures looks to be quite widespread, is that correct?_"

"_Yes, Chelsea. It's amazing anything has survived at all. There are many fires burning throughout the city, which are becoming more noticeable as the sky darkens._" Tom said. "_In fact... What the **hell** is... Oh... my god..._"

"_Tom, what's happening?_"

"_Chelsea... We...***static*** seeing...***static*** coming...***dead air*** from...***static*** sky...***longer static* AAARRGGGHHH! ...*dead air*...**_"

The radio link went dead, and the camera focused on the newsreader. "_It appears we seem to have lost the feed, there... Are we able to get it back? No? Oh... Alright, it appears we have new information coming in from New York..._" The newsreader's face grew pale. "_These are early reports, but it appears a similar event has occurred in New York. And...yes? Also... Los Angeles... Sydney...and Tokyo._" She looked stunned. "_Jesus, I've got family in Sydney..._"

"It's happening everywhere?" Emily squeaked.

"Looks that way." Effy said, still staring at the television in shock.

"My _god_, Naomi..." Mum said. She got up and came towards me, hugging me tightly to her. "Oh, my dear girl... I got a fair idea from what you all told me, but... It's a miracle you're all safe and well!"

"It was Naomi's thinking that kept us all going." Thomas said, as he leaned in the doorway. He and Cook had come in to watch the news bulletin when the volume went up.

"It's true." Came Katie's voice from behind us, and we all turned around to look at her. "If it wasn't for her... We might not have made it this far. We might still be underground. Or _worse._"

"I just did what I thought was best, guys." I said.

"Erm...what d'you suppose happened to that reporter?" Cook said.

We went quiet for a moment. "I shudder to think." I said, quietly.

"Me too." Emily whispered. She reached for my hand and held it tightly.

"Mum...what's the population here?"

"Hmm...not as many as London. Five hundred thousand, maybe?" She replied.

"How many in the other cities the newsreader mentioned?" Thomas asked.

"Eight and a half million in New York. Four in L.A. Nearly five in Sydney. Tokyo...thirteen. And that's just the city. About three times that if you count surrounding areas." Effy said. She looked around at us, who were all staring at her in surprise. "_What?_ I have a thing for numbers." She shrugged.

"Wierdo." Katie muttered.

"Ok, those places_ plus_ London, that's near _fifty million_ people. And Christ knows how many more." Cook said. "Whatever is happening...it sounds like it's global."

We were silent for what seemed like a long time, and it was Emily who spoke next. "W-what do we do now?" She said, her voice so very quiet, it was barely above a whisper. "Are we even_ safe_ here?"

"Those cities are all major cities." Effy noted. "This place... Small population, nothing really of major world interest..."

I thought for a moment. "Good point. Those cities...their populations are all over a million, first off. And they all have something major, if not to the world, then to those countries."

"New York has the stock exchange...and a lot of political stuff..." Thomas said.

"And they've had enough after 9/11." Katie said. "They didn't need this."

"And the other cities did?" Mum asked.

"That's...n-not what I meant..." Katie muttered.

I looked at Effy, whose attention was on the television. I followed her line of sight, and watched.

"..._and this just in, we have vision here from what is left of New York, of course a city that has seen the very essence of terror over a decade ago, and now this... What appears to be a creature that was somehow destroyed by a military response. Now, again, details are sketchy at this time, but from the report we have, the army and marines mobilised quite quickly and while there were heavy casualties, a chopper gunship managed to kill what you see on the screen now_..."

The vision was of a giant, wiry looking creature, its skin black and dark green, with what looked like huge plates of armour. Its limbs were huge, at least six or seven feet as reported by the newsreader, their bodies of equal length, making them around twenty feet total height. An oval shaped head topped its long neck, and huge, elongated sunken eyes dominated that head, the bottom of the face held large, sharp steely looking teeth. One of its arms formed into a giant spike that had a jagged edge, the other, a three fingered hand that appeared to glow from its centre. The rest of the creature was full of holes, probably from the rounds of ammunition that the helicopter had pumped into it, and these were leaking an iridescent green fluid. It glowed, as it oozed out, slowly, but surely.

"..._and now, I'm told we have a general on the line who can give us some further information. General Slate, what are we looking at in this vision here?_" The newsreader asked.

"_At this point in time, we are unclear on that information, ma'am. All we can say is that the creature was shot down by one of our gunships, shortly before the chopper itself was destroyed by another creature. The footage you are seeing was shot by one of our surveillance teams which got out of the area very quickly, before the area was overwhelmed. It's clear that these creatures are not from earth. We do not know what has caused this unprovoked attack but we are now aware that this has happened in many cities across the planet. The ones affected all seem to be major cities, we are aware of places like London, Moscow, Paris, of course New York, cities with substantial populations being destroyed in this manner. Some of these attacks began last night, as did the one in London._" The general advised.

"_General, word of the London attack only emerged today, is it possible London wasn't the only city hit last night?_"

"_That is correct, ma'am. We know of at least three cities in the US that were decimated last night, Washington D.C. was one of the first. Unfortunately, our top command has advised us that the president was holding a state function at the White House last night for many state and international dignitaries. And...well... You will see what happened in the footage you are about to see._"

The screen switched to what appeared to be webcam footage of the White House itself. The general continued to speak.

"_This footage was taken at approximately nine o'clock last night. As you can see, the White House is lit up by a phenomenally bright beam of light..._"

We all watched as the footage showed exactly that. My mind flashed back to the previous night, when Effy and I had seen the exact same kind of bright light engulf the Houses of Parliament.

"Jesus _Christ._" I said.

The footage then showed the White House glowing bright orange once the light had gone, but the windows were all shattered, and bright flames we're coming out of them.

"_As far as we are aware, no one survived that attack. The president is dead. Also in attendance were the heads of state of the following countries: Great Britain, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Brazil, Sweden, Canada and South Africa._"

"_Have you encountered any survivors in New York?_" The newsreader asked.

The general paused. "_Not many, ma'am_." He said, sombrely. "_Barely a fraction of the population. I suggest that anyone watching this protect yourselves as best as you can. Some of the survivors managed to do so by taking shelter underground in subway stations here. If you are still in a major city and you are hearing this, evacuate immediately. Head out of the cities at all costs. They are not safe. I do apologise, but I have to cut this short, I'm required at a briefing._"

"_Of course, thank you for your time, general._" The newsreader replied. The camera went back to the studio, with a ticker across the bottom of the screen giving details of the attacks. "_General Slate from the US military, there. We will take a short break, and then return with more._"

Effy turned the television off, and we all sat in silence. I looked around, and everyone had looks of shock on their faces. That sort of look that says "we are doomed".

"All those people..." Mum said.

Emily held my hand tighter, and it looked up at her. The look of anguish she had on her face, which had never really left, seemed to have returned with more intensity. Tears were spilling down her cheeks. "What do we do now?" She croaked.

"I can't answer that, Emily." I said. "I wish I could."

"Get some sleep." Effy said. "Naoms, you got us here, and that's what you promised. But we are all dead tired. It's probably not the best idea to go anywhere right now... So we should just get as much sleep as we can."

"Effy's right. It won't do you any good going out there now. Let's sleep, and think tomorrow." Mum said. "There's a couple of mattresses in the spare room that you're welcome to sleep on...and there's the sofa, too. I've got plenty of blankets."

"Yeah, and if anyone wants to sleep in my room, they're welcome to as well." I said.

"I will." Emily said.

"Big surprise." Katie scoffed.

"_Shut up!_" Emily snapped back.

"Whatever."

Some time later, Cook and Thomas were camped out in the sitting room, Effy and Katie were in the spare room, and Emily was sitting on one side of my bed hugging her knees to her chest. I was sitting with her, just watching her as she lay her forehead on her knees. She said nothing, but gave the occasional sniffle.

"_Emily?_" I said, softly. "I know it's been an awful day...but...how are you doing?"

"Hmm?" She murmured, sitting up and wiping her eyes. "I'm f-fine." She said, with a weak smile.

I shook my head. "You're _not_, though. Today's been hard on you. I know, I was there."

"I don't want to think about it." She replied, sadly.

"I know. I'm not... _suggesting_ you need to talk about it. I just..." I paused, and sighed. "Christ, I feel like I'm shit at this. I just know you're not ok, and I want to _help_, if I can."

Emily stared at her feet for a long time before she spoke. "_Every_ time I close my eyes... I see them. My parents. My brother. Lifeless and staring back at me." She said, as tears began to spill once more. "I see it so _clearly_, and I wish I didn't." She sobbed. "It's _horrible!_"

I scooted closer to her and took her into my arms, hugging her tightly. I knew there was nothing I could say that would ease her pain, so I just let her cry. Eventually, I told her to lie down, and it wrapped myself around her, holding her close and safe.

"You must think I'm such a child." She said, in a defeated half-whisper.

"No, I _don't._ I think you're very human. And I think you are in quite a bit of shock. I'm not judging you at all, ok? Cry if you need to. It's ok. I'm here for you. Try and get some sleep. I'll be right here if you need me. I promise." I said, quietly.

"You're amazing." She said.

"I'm not, really. But I do care." I replied.

"Yeah...you do. Thank you." She whispered against my neck.

Eventually, we both slept. I couldn't seem to sleep myself, if Emily was still awake. It took her a long time, and she shifted and fidgeted in my arms a bit, but I know it can't have been easy for her to just drift off with all the death, destruction and hopelessness weighing on her mind. But once she was asleep, I followed her shortly after. Apart from the one time she woke up crying for her dad, when I soothed her by kissing her forehead and brushing her tears away until she slept again, she didn't rouse for the rest of the night.

* * *

**A/N#2: More soon, I promise. I can't say how soon, but when I started this story, I said it probably wouldn't be as regularly updated as everything else. (Then again, I have not updated much of anything lately... I'm working on it, I swear!)**

**Reviews are muchly welcomed... Even if you think it's shit, but if you do, be nice about it, yeah? Because constructive criticism is one thing, dismissing it as garbage or shit frankly doesn't help. Plus, it's rude.**

**Until next time...**

**~GN~ xo**


	9. A Not So Safe Haven

**A/N: Hello!**

**Cheers for reviews and such on the last chapter. It seems you are liking this dose of the apocalypse, and I admit, it's fun writing it. Makes a change, y'know?**

**This chapter, I'm hoping, has a nice dose of suspense in it? You guys can be the judge on that... It's got its fair share of drama, though, I will say that, and a little bit of loveliness, too.**

**On with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. But I would buy it a drink. Any and all typos and outrageous situations are my fault. LOL**

* * *

**(Naomi POV)**

When I opened my eyes, it was daylight. I checked the time on the clock on the bedside table, and it was a little after seven. The little redhead who had slept a fitful sleep in my arms was still dozing, with the most peaceful look on her face. I thought to myself, with sadness, that it was the most peace she had experienced in the past thirty six hours or so. Carefully, I got out of bed, and stretched my limbs, going to the window. And that was when I saw it, off in the distance, past the outskirts of the town, which I could always see clearly from my bedroom window.

Smoke, coming from the next town over. It was too far to see clearly what had happened there, but I remember there was a church that I could always see from my bedroom window. Now, it had smoke pouring from the openings of its bell tower, its wooden roof completely gone.

"Christ." I muttered. I heard movement behind me, and turned to see Emily stirring awake. I went back ad sat on my bed next to her. "Hey." I said softly, as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Hey." She replied, her voice extremely husky from sleep. "We're still here."

I nodded. "Yeah, we are. But..." I sighed.

Emily looked at me, the dread returning to her eyes. "What is it? Tell me."

"No sugar coating?" I asked, and Emily shook her head. "I don't think we can stay here. I don't think we are going to be safe."

"Oh."

There was a soft knock at the door. "Come in." I said, and the door opened to reveal Effy.

"I didn't wake you?" She asked. I shook my head. "You'd both better come downstairs. Things got worse overnight." She added, leaving to go back down the stairs. Emily and I looked at each other, and we both followed Effy's path. Everyone was in the sitting room, and whoever wasn't sitting on the sofa was sitting in front of it or on its arms. All eyes were on the television.

"_...once again, if you are seeing this broadcast, you need to count yourselves lucky. The alien threat has attacked once more overnight, and it is becoming more and more clear that now that a majority of the major cities around the world have been obliterated, with an uncountable number of casualties numbering in the millions, possibly hundreds of. We have tried to get into contact with General Slate, who you will recall ex spoke with last night from New York, however we have not been able to get a hold of anyone from the military._" The newsreader said. She was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing the day before, but the scene behind her had changed, instead of a newsroom, she appeared to be in a tunnel. "_As we stated earlier, we were advised to evacuate our newsroom late last night, and are now broadcasting from the underground train tunnels nearby. We are of course in Birmingham, however several of our staff were making their way to a hotel nearby, as they lived in London and had nowhere else to go..._"

"Mum... You know that church I could always see from my window?" I said, as Gina handed me a cup of tea.

"Of course, love."

I shook my head. "It's gone." I said. "There's smoke pouring from the tower."

Gina started at me. "Oh my god." She said, quietly.

Everyone else was silent, the volume of the television seemingly melting away as we were all deep in some kind of thought. "We_ can't_ stay here." I said. "I think I was wrong... about small towns being safe." I looked down at my tea, drinking it down and placing the cup on the coffee table. "We need to go somewhere else."

"But...where do we go?" Katie asked.

I shook my head. "I_ don't_ know. I...I wish I did. I wish I knew a lot of things, I wish I knew what these creatures wanted, I wish I knew why they had to come here in the first place and destroy EVERYTHING we know. I wish I knew why they had to destroy the lives we have created for ourselves, and kill so many people. What did we do? Where do we go?" I scoffed. "I don't fucking_ know_, ok? All I know is, if we stay here, we might well be _dead_ tomorrow." I added, grimly.

"You couldn't make that sound a little less hopeless?" Katie asked, quietly.

I lunged at her in anger, tackling her to the floor. "**NO, I FUCKING _CAN'T!_** None of this shit is fucking roses, you _TWAT,_ so quit stating the_ fucking_ obvious!" I yelled, before I felt hands on my shoulders, pulling me back up onto my feet, and back onto the sofa. I felt small arms wrap around me and hold me tightly.

"_Stop it._" Emily's small voice whispered in my ear as I attempted to wriggle my way out. The way she held me begged me more than her words did, and I relaxed into her. The emotion I had suppressed all those hours finally rushed at me, and I couldn't hold back the tears anymore, my body shaking from the heavy sobs.

"Come on." I vaguely heard Effy say, and then the shuffling of feet filing out of the room. I felt Emily's arms tighten around me, as Gina sat down on the end of the sofa. She held my hand tightly in both of hers, neither of them speaking as I cried.

I don't know how many minutes passed, but eventually I had stopped crying and was just trying to calm my breathing, not helped by my own erratic shuddering and almost hyperventilation. "I'm _sorry._" I said, in a hoarse whisper.

"Don't be." Both Emily and Gina said in unison.

"Is there anywhere near here that we can go?" Emily quietly asked Gina. "Any railway tunnels, or some place underground?"

Gina thought for a moment. "Only one place near here that I can think of, but it's nearly an hour away. The Box tunnel."

I thought of the tunnel itself. It had been constructed in the latter half of the early 1800s, and was dug through Box Hill itself. I'd been through it many times on the train from London. Of course, it was a safe assumption that the trains were not going to be running. I took a long sniffle, and wiped my eyes. "Yeah." I whispered. "That's where we should go. I doubt any trains will run through it, and if the next town over is in ruins...Bristol_ isn't_ safe, either."

"I guess I should pack up some stuff, then?" Gina asked.

I sighed, deeply, and nodded. "I'm _sorry_, mum. But as I told Emily... No sugar coating. We stay here..."

"We're probably dead. I know, dear." She replied. "Effy said you brought some food with you?"

"Yeah, but not enough for all of us for very long." I said.

"Right. I'll round up the tinned stuff in the cupboard, then...and make sure we've got some things to cook with, as well." Gina said, all too cheerily. "Emily, would you like to give me a hand?"

"No, thanks, Gina... If it's all the same, I think I'd better stay with Naomi for a bit."

My mother smiled. "Alright, then." She said, standing up and leaving the sitting room.

I felt Emily's arms squeeze around me. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"I've been_ better_. I should apologise to your sister... She just..."

"_Shhh_... Don't worry about it. She'll get over it." Emily said. "We are all under strain right now...lack of sleep...lack of knowing what comes next."

"I don't _normally_ react like that." I said, placing my hand on top of hers. "I feel like I need you to know that."

Emily placed a soft kiss on my shoulder. "Yeah, I know. You don't seem like the type, somehow."

I took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "I'm _scared_, Emily." I said, gripping her hand tightly.

"Me too."

Our attention turned back to the television. "_...and we have managed to make contact with General Slate, who is in an undisclosed location in Washington. General, what update do you have for us?_"

The vision turned to a grainy image of the General, along with snowy static. "_Ma'am, the situation has got worse since we last spoke. Or military has taken heavy casualties fighting against this alien threat, and as you by now know, several more smaller towns and cities world over were attacked last night. What we can tell you now, is that casualty estimates are near one billion total. Currently, alien activity has ceased, but there is, of course, no telling whether these attacks may have ceased altogether._" The general explained. "_As happened yesterday, daytime appears to be when they are dormant. We do not know if they are still on earth, or whether they are up there, just poised and waiting to attack again._"

"General, what further advice do you have for anyone who may be watching this broadcast?"

_"It's much the same as the last time we spoke, ma'am. Get out of the cities, even the smaller ones. The creatures seem to only be attacking above ground, so find somewhere underground. If you are unable to find anywhere underground, seek shelter in older buildings only, I'm talking pre-1950s at least. Stay away from the windows of those buildings, ideally you want to be in the cen...***static*** of the...***prolonged static***..._"

The picture turned to snow and then suddenly went blank and silent. The newsreader's face then appeared back on the screen, a look of confusion across it. "_Obviously we are experiencing technical difficulties there... But the message is clear. As the General says, it seems that you are not safe in your homes, and the best plan is to take shelter underground if you can. As reported before, we are transmitting on emergency power, and are not sure we will be able to do so for any extended period of time. We are looking into obtaining some fuel for our generator to keep our transmission live, but as yet, that is still ongoing. Updating you now, if you have just managed to join us, the whole planet appears to have been attacked by...***static***...alien forces...***static***..._"

The screen then cut out completely to white noise.

"I guess their genny ran out of juice, then." Cook said, from the doorway. He crossed to the television and turned it off.

"Yeah." I said. "Listen, about earlier..."

"Don't worry about it, Blondie."

"Is Katie ok? I must have scared her a bit."

He nodded. "Effy's out back with her. She's a bit shaken, but she'll live."

"I _told_ her not to push me." I said, shaking my head.

"She just forgot herself, Naomi." Cook said. "She told us she apologised last night?" I nodded. "She meant that, y'know?"

"It's true." Emily said. "If she did...she meant it. Katie Fitch isn't one to do so very often."

"We're all topsy turvy, yeah?" He said. "She's just scared about what happens next."

"We _all_ are." I said. "We talked about it. Cook...whereabouts are you from, I'm not sure I asked."

He gave me a goofy grin. "Yorkshire."

"D'you know the area around here at all, by chance?"

"A little. My uncle owned a pub in town a few years back. Sold it, though."

"Do you know where Box Hill is?" Emily asked.

"Aye... That one with the rail tunnel through it?"

"Yeah, that's the one." I said. "We can't stay here."

"Going by the news, I think you're right." He said, nodding towards the television.

"That tunnel is fairly long, at least that's what I remember from the odd train trip. I say we go there, and hole up there for now." I said.

Cook nodded. "And beyond that?"

I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. But at least we will be safer_ there_ than here."

"You want me to tell the others?" He asked.

I paused for a moment. "I think it would be best if you do." I said. "Mum's getting some more food together, and I'm going to see what we can do about the rest." I added.

"I'll help." Emily offered.

"Are you sure?" I asked, turning my head.

"Yeah. Keeping busy, and all." She nodded.

I stood up. "Alright...come on, then." I said, leading her back upstairs. When I got to my room I turned around and pulled Emily into my arms, hugging her tightly. She held me tightly as well, now that we had a quiet moment to ourselves. I kissed the top of her head softly. "How are you...really?" I asked, meeting her eyes.

She shrugged. "Sort of numb, I guess. It doesn't feel real."

"What about-"

"I can't change it, Naomi. They're _gone_. I have to learn to live with it. So does Katie." She said, solemnly.

"I am sorry for Katie. I need you to know that." I said. "I know you know what she's like, being your sister and all."

"She thanked you last night?" Emily asked.

I nodded. "For bringing you all here. I'd hoped we'd be safer for longer, but..." I sighed.

"Hey. You got us this far, yeah?" Emily said softly. "None of us knew what would happen last night. We need to be thankful we are still alive."

"I know."

"Now...what do you need help with?"

Sometime later, we had packed up all the clothes that were left in my cupboard into a rucksack. I had enough of my own clothes in the rucksack I had brought from London, but seeing as Emily and Katie had lost everything, along with their parents when their house was demolished by the creatures, I felt it proper to at least provide what was leftover of my wardrobe for them. It wasn't much, mostly pants and shirts, and a few sweaters. I told Emily that she should take a shower, it might be the last chance we got for a while, so she picked out something to wear, and did as she was told. When she emerged, she was wearing an old pair of my jeans with the cuffs rolled up about five times, as well as a blue tee that looked a couple of sizes too big. I couldn't help but giggle when she came back into the room.

"What?" She asked, curiously.

I shook my head. "Nothing. It's just... You look sort of adorable." I said, biting my bottom lip.

Emily blushed and looked down at what she was wearing, and looked back up at me. "Not my fault you're so tall." She smirked.

I raised my eyebrow. "In that case, it's not _my_ fault you're so short."

She laughed, slightly, before her expression soured a bit.

"You ok?" I asked.

Emily nodded. "Yeah, just... It's not right that I should be laughing, somehow."

I stepped towards her and placed my hand on her shoulder. "Emily, you do_ whatever_ you want. I'm not judging you. I'm just worried about you, that's all." She looked up at me with wide, curious eyes, that also displayed nervousness. She stepped a little closer to me, leaned up, pulled my head down towards hers and kissed me softly. My hand slipped up to her neck and I kissed her back, matching the movement of her lips with my own. I felt her hand rest on my hip, pulling my body a little closer to hers, and before lack of oxygen became a problem, my lips parted from hers. I looked into her eyes, feeling butterflies in my stomach, and cleared my throat. "Uh... Is that what you wanted to do?"

Emily looked at me and half a smile tugged at her lips. "Yeah, I guess so."

"But...I mean...I don't want to take advantage, or anything..."

"Naomi?" She asked, softly, her voice slightly pleading.

"Yeah?" I whispered.

"Just give me a fucking..." She said, her voice a little raspy, before her lips met mine once more, her kiss holding just a little more need than the last one.

"Oh." I said, when her lips once more parted from mine. Again, she leaned forward and kissed me again, just softly, so gently, once, twice...again, again... and twice more, before she looked up at me with wide eyes.

"You liked that." She said, her whisper huskier.

Lost for words, I just nodded slowly.

A knock came on the door, and it opened to reveal Effy. "Am I interrupting?" She asked, looking us both up and down.

"_Uh_..." I said.

"No, I should see if Katie's ok, anyway." Emily said as she blushed, a slight look of disappointment on her face. She left the room and went downstairs.

"Oh...I _was_ interrupting, wasn't I?"

I reached to the rucksack on my bed and set about fastening it. "What's up, Eff?"

"Cook said we were going to hole up in a tunnel somewhere, and Katie is freaking out about it." Effy said.

"Let me guess, some bullshit about how _horrible_ it's going to be for her hair?" I said, sarcastically.

"No." Effy replied. "She's really scared about what you said. About how if we stay here..." She added, trailing off.

"As I said to Emily,_ no_ sugar coating. I can't very well tell everyone we are going to be safe here when chances are Bristol will be a burning pile of rubble by tomorrow morning, can I?" I said. "How's Gina?"

"Pottering around the kitchen muttering to herself. I think she's also worried about losing her home."

I sat down on the end of the bed and sighed. "It's still_ my_ home too, Eff." I said. "I don't want to see it destroyed _any more_ than Gina does. But if we stay, there's no way to defend ourselves. We'd be screwed."

"Try explaining that to Katie."

I shook my head. "It's best I stay away from her for a while, if I can help it. At least for most of today."

"Right."

I looked up at Effy. She had a look on her face that showed worry. "What else is there?" I asked.

"The broadcast has stopped." She said.

"I know. Emily and I were downstairs when-"

"_No._" Effy said, shaking her head. "It came back on briefly, and Katie and I were watching it. You know...train wreck syndrome and all. And then... The tunnel they were in... It must have caved in around them. There were loud noises, and then..."

I stared at Effy. "_Jesus._" I whispered, walking to the window and looking outside. It didn't look like anything had changed on the horizon, but the bad feeling I had, which had returned after seeing the burnt out church this morning, was steadily growing worse. "We have to get out of here. And _fast_." I muttered. I handed Effy the rucksacks. "Take these downstairs, and put them in the back of the jeep. Tell everyone to get their shit together. I'll round up as much bedding as I can find. We are leaving in an hour."

"Will an hour be enough?" Effy asked, heaving one rucksack onto her shoulder.

I shrugged. "It'll fucking well_ have_ to be. We've got no choice." I said. "We get everyone out of here first, to the tunnel. Whatever doesn't fit in the Jeep... I'll come back for."

"Naomi..."

"_Don't_, Eff. Don't argue with me, alright? Just do as I ask._ Please_."

Effy regarded me with her logical blue eyes, and nodded, picking up the other rucksack and leaving my room.

An hour later, I had run around the house, much like the proverbial chicken missing its head. I'd taken all the blankets from the cupboard, as well as stripped every bed in the house, including my mum's. I'd placed the pile of blankets and pillows by the front door, and also gone into the shed in the back garden, by which time Emily had decided to help me, as I found a large can of kerosene for the lamps, a large axe, as well as the old generator that mum had kept since I was too young to remember.

"Naomi?" Emiiy asked.

"What?" I asked, flustered, as we lugged the heavy generator to the front of the house and deposited by the front door.

"We can't fit all this in the Jeep, as well as the rest of us." She said.

I looked at her. "I know." I said, nodding. "I'm coming back for this stuff."

"_What?!_"

"You heard." I replied. "We are going to need some kind of power, Emily."

"Oh, for the television and stereo, _no doubt._" She said, sarcastically. "Planning a party?"

"Oh _yeah_, with loads of vodka and spliff, too." I joked, half heartedly. "Look, my phone has a radio in it. I need to keep the battery charged somehow."

"Oh." Emily replied. "No party, then?" She smirked.

"Not unless we can raid an off license." I laughed, walking back into the house.

Everyone was in the sitting room, and every face looked up at us a we entered it. They all looked at me with a combination of hope and fear. It made my stomach drop, and it suddenly felt nauseous. I cleared my throat before I spoke.

"Uh... Cook has told you what the plan is?" I asked, timidly. Everyone nodded. "I know it's not a very _good_ plan, but it's the best I could come up with. I know I promised you this was a safe place, but... Well, that was before smaller downs were destroyed. From the looks of the television broadcast, I'd say on the whole, the earth is_ more_ fucked than we thought."

"That sounds like a...how you say..._reasonable_ assumption?" Thomas asked.

"Probably. I'm sorry I can't be more optimistic, but I think our best chance of survival is to get the hell out of here." I said.

"And I just spring-cleaned, too!" Gina said, half cheerily.

"I'm _sorry,_ mum." I said looking towards my feet. "I can't make this any better than it is. I wish I could, but..." I said, my voice beginning to break as it trailed off. I swallowed, hard, fighting off tears. "So...we _go,_ yeah? I can't make it any nicer than it is." I repeated, as I looked up, and saw sympathetic nodding all around me. "Ok. Mum... Have you got everything you want?"

"Yes, love. All the tinned food in the house, and-"

"_No_, mum. Personal stuff." I said. "You probably won't get the chance to come back."

Gina nodded. "I understand. And yes."

"Good. Well, let's go, then." I said, taking my steps towards the front door.

We all got into the Jeep, with Cook and Thomas now taking space in the back section so mum would have a space on the back seat. Emily and I were once more in the front, and I had marked out our route on a map that I had given the redhead. Once we set off, the drive was fairly quiet, the roads were mainly deserted, and we passed a supermarket that was also deserted. I made a note of it, and kept driving.

Finally, we made it to our destination, after passing trees and fields, and the odd village here and there. The railway track.

"Are you sure this is a good idea...holing up in a railway tunnel?" Katie asked, cautiously.

"Did you see any trains on our way here?" I asked.

"Uh...no."

"I haven't seen a single working one since London. So I'm guessing we will be as safe as we can be here." I said, driving onto the track itself, the large travel stones crunching underneath the wheels. Thank god this Jeep had four-wheel drive capability, it made it much easier to drive over the track. The tunnel itself looked ahead a short distance from us, and I thanked Christ or whoever that the tunnel had been built so long ago, and looked to be of solid construction. I turned on the Jeep's high beam lights, and began our journey in.

The walls of the tunnel were black, covered with years of soot from steam trains and residue from the exhaust of diesel ones. I took note of the odd side areas and ladders I saw along the way, and once we were about half a mile in, I applied the brakes and switched off the engine, leaving the lights on.

"Right. This is us, I guess." I said, unbuckling my seat belt. "Everybody out, and give a hand getting the stuff out of the Jeep, yeah? You too, Katie."

"I never said I wouldn't help!"

"Just _do_ it, Katie." Emily said, wearily.

A short time later, after everyone had pitched in, the Jeep was empty of everything.

"What do we do now?" Katie asked, as I lit one of the lamps, placing it in a small alcove in the tunnel wall.

"You lot stay here. I'm going back for what we left behind."

"_What?_" Gina asked. "Naomi..."

"Look, we couldn't fit absolutely_ everything_ in all at once, along with the rest of us, yeah? I left the generator behind, along with blankets and stuff. Unless you want to sleep on the cold hard stones?"

"I'm going with you."

"Emily, _no!_" Katie said. "Please don't."

"Katie, it's still daytime. We will be back before dark." Emily pointed out.

"She's right." Effy said. "Besides, Naomi will keep her safe. Right, Naomi?"

I looked at Katie. "I promised I'd protect her in Chiswick, didn't I?" Katie nodded. "That still stands, even if the location changes. I'll look after her. You have my word."

Katie looked at me, then at Emily, and then reluctantly nodded.

"Don't worry, love." Gina said. "You can trust her."

"Also...we can get the job done faster if we have one other person. Anyone want to volunteer?"

"I will come." Thomas said.

"Alright. Let's go... The sooner we go, the sooner we can come back." I said.

So, Thomas, Emily and I got back into the Jeep, after the rest of the group wished us safe travel, and it stated the engine up again, carefully reversing out of the tunnel.

The drive back to Bristol was quicker than expected, what with a severe lack of traffic on the road, and that general sense that returning somewhere is always faster than the outward journey. We pulled up to my mother's house, and began loading the bedding, the axe, kerosene and that dreadfully heavy generator into the back of the Jeep. It took us all of twenty or so minutes, and after one final check of the house, we took our places back in the seats of the Jeep and set back off to Box Hill.

Once we reached the supermarket, I pulled up in the car park, noting as well the service station across the road.

"What are you doing?" Emily asked, as I unbuckled my seatbelt.

"Extra provisions?" I noted, nodding towards the supermarket.

"But, it's closed." Thomas said.

"As it was this morning when we went past. I don't think it'll be open anytime soon." I said, opening the back hatch and pulling out the axe. "Just so you know, I'm not a criminal, yeah? I think that's Cook's department. But the food we have isn't going to last us very long, and Christ knows when we will get another opportunity."

"You have a point." Thomas said.

"Glad we are in agreement, then. This is _purely_ for survival." I said. "Come on, give us a hand."

Both Emily and Thomas got out of the Jeep and we stood in front of the supermarket, the axe feeling weighty in my right hand.

"Better cover your eyes." I said, taking the axe in both my hands. I heaved it towards the window, which shattered as soon as the heavy iron blade kissed it. It also set off the alarm, which pierced our hearing very quickly. I climbed through the window, and saw the ringing bell on the wall, which I heaved the axe at, silencing it almost immediately. "Right. Nothing perishable, because it won't last long without a fridge. Canned or packaged stuff, noodles. That sort of thing." I said. "You've got ten minutes to get as much as you can."

The three of us grabbed baskets and raced around the shelves, picking up as much stuff as we could. I went into the drinks aisle and went for some giant plastic containers full of spring water. I always thought it was a stupid idea, personally, but then the world hadn't gone to shit so quickly until now. We ended up filling the entire back section of the Jeep with an array of canned and packaged goods, as well as six ten litre containers of water, and a twenty-four pack of bottled water. I also spotted some jerry cans that were on sale, and picked up four of them. Once we were back in the Jeep, I checked the fuel gauge, seeing that it was just under the halfway mark. I gunned the ignition and drove across the street to the service station, pulling up beside one of the pumps.

I got out of the truck again, and checked the pumps. Sure enough, the hoses were locked, so one by one I axed three of the locks off, and got Emily and Thomas filling four of the cans with fuel, as well as refuelling the Jeep. I also knocked the lock off the kerosene pump, and filled the remaining two with kerosene. Thomas then decided to find the nearest tree and take a leak.

As I was filling the second can, I heard something. A loud, distant thump in the air. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and Emily looked at me.

"Did you hear that?" She asked.

Then, I heard it again. I nodded. "Get the cans into the back of the Jeep._ Now._" I said, the can I was filling still only half full. Emily nodded and did as I asked. As I heard the liquid rising to the top, I heard an explosion in the distance, seeing smoke rising overhead.

"Thomas! Hurry it up!" I called, seeing his attention was diverted in the other direction. "Emily, get into the passenger seat, now." I said, securing the lid on the jerry can tightly, and putting it and the axe into the back of the Jeep, slamming the hatch shut.

It happened so quickly I couldn't believe it. Clear as day, a creature came from the sky and landed less than a hundred metres from where we stood. The thumping sound got louder again, and again I yelled. "_**THOMAS...RUN!**_" The boy was staring up at the creature which stood almost on top of him, dwarfing him as I reached for the ignition key.

I started the engine as Thomas turned, swearing in French as he began to run towards the Jeep. "_Putain de merde!_"

But the creature was too quick for him. The huge beast poised above him and raised its arm, bringing it down and skewering him through the chest. The only other thing I heard, apart from Emily's blood curdling scream, and the roar of the creature, was the tortured cry of Thomas himself as blood spewed from his mouth, his arms and legs spasming and flailing wildly.

"OH..._FUCK!_" I cried, stepping on the accelerator. The wheels spun before they gained traction, and I controlled the steering as best as I could, my knuckles white from the tightness of my grip on the wheel as I maneuvered the Jeep out onto the road, speeding away from the service station.

We were barely two hundred metres away from it when the shock of a giant explosion filled the air, and as I looked in the rear view mirror, a giant fireball rose into the sky. _Goodbye gas station..._

I looked over at Emily. "Are you ok?" I asked. She stared at the passenger side mirror, at the rising smoke from where we had just been. "**_EMILY!_**" I shouted. She startled and then looked at me. "Are you ok?!" I asked again. With terror in her eyes, she nodded rapidly. I reached for her hand and held it tightly in mine, still keeping my eye on the road, with a grip she returned twice as tight. "I've _got_ you, ok? I promise you... I won't let you go."

* * *

**A/N#2: Ok, before you all throw tomatoes at me, I _had_ to kill someone else off. It was almost Katie, but then I thought... _Nah,_ where would the snark come from, then? It was_ almost_ Gina, too.. But then.. I've already killed her off in one story, so two would be cruel. So...Thomas it was. Sorry_not_sorry.**

**More eventually...no idea what happens next...stay tuned.**

**Reviews make me smile...!**

**Until next time,**

**~GN~ xo**


	10. Back To Safety?

**A/N: Hello!**

**Cheers for the reviews to the last chapter.**

**No more to be said, really, except...**

**On with it, then...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Pretty much it. Any and all typos...deal with it!**

* * *

**(Naomi POV)**

My knuckles ached. Scratch that, my hands ached, full stop. They hadn't let go of the steering wheel once I almost lost control of the Jeep rounding the corner onto the road that led us out of Bristol. The small city I had grown up in was being systematically destroyed, in the daylight, by those horrible giant creatures.

"_What_...I thought...they only...came at night?!" Emily stammered, a look of horror on her face.

"Apparently_ not!_" I replied, taking a brief look in the rear-view mirror. The sky was filling with smoke, and my heart was pounding in my chest as I kept control of the Jeep as best as I could. "_Fuck!_" I muttered, scared out of my wits. "It's gone, isn't it?"

Emily turned her head to look out of the window. "Yeah." She said, that wobbly tone creeping back into her voice. I knew she was scared. So was I. "Don't you dare stop!" She pleaded.

I shook my head. "Not until we get back to the tunnel, I promise." I kept my eyes on the road, and suddenly, rubble began to rain down in front of us. There were large chunks of broken brick that were almost bouncing off the road in front of us, some of which were hitting the Jeep itself. "Emily! Pull your head in, yeah?" I said, and quick smart, she did. "Wind up the window." I added, as I rushed to wind up my own. Once they were both up, the hum of the engine was all we heard, along with the metallic clank of smaller chunks of rubble that were hitting the bonnet. I out my foot down on the accelerator harder, and the Jeep hit its top speed, both of my hands back on the wheel, gripping it tightly and careful not to make any sudden movements. Emily screamed as a large chunk of what was possibly once a building slammed into a tree ahead of us, causing the tree to topple over, the roots barely holding it as it crashed to the road in front of us. "HOLD ON!" I shouted, jerking the steering wheel from side to side in order to swerve around it, picking up more speed once our direction had been corrected.

A few minutes later, we had passed under a bridge, and the smoke and dust around us began to clear, and all I could do was keep my eyes on the road ahead. We were still flying along the road at top speed, and now we had made it out of the city limits, Emily turned back to look again. She rolled down the window, even though I protested for her not to, and took her phone out of her pocket, which she must have charged while we were at Gina's. "Be bloody careful!" I said. "I haven't come this far to lose you due to stupidity."

She nodded, and half hung out of the window, taking photos of the destruction behind us. I wasn't sure how many shots she had taken, or even if they would be any good, at this speed and inertia, but it was something she felt she had to do, and I was too busy concentrating on the road ahead to object. Soon enough, though, she pulled her head back into the cab of the truck and wound the window up. She put the phone back into her pocket, and remained catatonically silent for the rest of the journey.

Soon enough, we had made it to the railroad tracks, and I stopped the Jeep to turn onto them. All this destruction in the past thirty some hours, and I was waiting for a bloody train to pass...that was never going to come. It was Emily's hand on my shoulder that jolted me into movement, squeezing gently. I looked at her pleading eyes staring back at me, as if to say "_you promised you would keep me safe._"

So, I did. I turned onto those tracks and carefully drove the Jeep back into the tunnel, until the lights illuminated the four people we had left behind. Finally, the brakes squeaked as the truck came to a halt, and I shut the motor off, the lights still shining.

Effy stood up first, looking towards the vehicle, and even from the distance between us, I could see that she knew something terrible had happened. Katie jumped up next, moving towards the a Jeep, before Effy held her back.

"What the fuck, Effy?" She said, her raspy lisp muffled by the closed windows of the Jeep.

"_Wait._" I saw, more than heard Effy say.

I was there, but I wasn't. It was that sense you have of being zoned out when everyone is talking to you, and your mind is blank and you have that sound of white noise ringing in your ears. But me, I had one thought in my head that would not leave in a hurry.

"It's my fault." I muttered, as I barely registered the tear that slipped down my cheek.

"What?" Emily said, so softly I almost missed it.

"_Thomas_. It's my fault he's dead." I mumbled. "If we hadn't gone for supplies-"

I felt Emily's hand cover mine as it still sat on the steering wheel. "You _weren't_ to know, Naomi. It's nobody's fault. It's just shitty luck."

"Shitty luck." I laughed, without humour. "_Right_. Thomas escaped hell in his own country, to be skewered by a _fucking_ alien. Shitty luck. Of course." The tone of my voice was as light as it was blunt and bitter. "Jesus fucking Christ."

Emily pulled my hand off the steering wheel and held it, nnit so tightly that it hurt but enough to let me know it was safe. "Naomi, you did what you thought was right. You were thinking of all of us."

"They _never_ attacked in the day before." I said. "Maybe it's hopeless, trying to stay alive. Maybe we should just-"

"Shut up! I won't hear you say we should lay down and die, Naomi." Emily said.

"But Thomas...and Freddie..."

"Freddie made his own choice, Naomi. It's not your fault he committed suicide." She continued. "It's sad, but that was all him. And Thomas... Well, when you've gotta go, you've gotta go."

"What?"

"He had to pee. Maybe he couldn't hold it that long." She shrugged. "He wasn't to know a twenty foot alien was going to rise up from behind the trees and turn him into a shish kebab."

I looked over at Emily, who was trying to hide a smirk. I guess I was looking at her in surprised shock at her comment, because she started to laugh, even though an embarrassed blush covered her cheeks. And, laughter being infectious, I began to laugh too, and then neither of us could really stop, until my door was opened, and Effy's blue eyes looked at us with curiosity.

"Share the joke?" She asked.

I shook my head, calming myself down. "It's_ not_ funny, you wouldn't understand."

She nodded. "What happened?"

I sighed, the heaviness returning to my composure. "Do you want the good news, the bad news, or the worse news?" I asked.

"Maybe you'd better tell us all." Gina said, appearing behind Effy.

I nodded. "Yeah. Probably." I said, unbuckling the seatbelt and getting out of the Jeep.

We had gathered a few minutes later, around a small fire that Cook had made by venturing out of the tunnel and finding some loose sticks and kindling. It was warm, at least, and the four of them now looked up at both myself and Emily with both dread and curiosity.

"Where's Thomas?" Katie asked.

Emily and I looked at each other. "_Dead_." I said.

"Did you kill him?" The other twin asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course not! I'm not a_ fucking_ murderer!" I said, in disgust.

"_Jesus_, Katie..." Emily said.

Katie shrugged. "Well, I dunno you from a bar of soap, really, so..."

I sighed. "We went back to mum's for the rest of the stuff...the generator and the bedding. You remember that supermarket we passed on the way here?"

"Aye, by the service station." Cook said. "But it was closed?"

"Yeah, it was. I was thinking ahead. The food we had wasn't enough to keep us gong for long. And we'd need other supplies. Water and such. So... I smashed the window with the axe, and we went shopping."

"_Naomi!_" Gina said, In shock.

"_Mum,_ the world has gone to shit, and you're going to give me grief about getting supplies?"

"But, stealing is wrong!"

"Oh,_ fuck's_ sake! It's not like we held up the joint with bloody shotguns, yeah? There were no staff, the place hadn't even opened and the entire town was deserted. What did you want me to do, wait for the afternoon shift to show up?!" Emily placed her hand on my shoulder to calm me down, as I threaded my fingers through my hair. "We got as a much as we could. Food, and water. Enough to keep us for a while, anyways. After that... I noticed the fuel gauge on the Jeep was getting low, so we drove over the road to the service station. We took six jerry cans from the supermarket also, and filed them up with fuel and kerosene for the bloody generator." I explained.

"Then what?" Effy asked.

"We heard noises." Emily said.

"What, a giant brass band?" Katie scoffed.

"_Worse._ Explosions."

"Explosions?" Gina asked.

I nodded. "Thomas had gone to relieve himself under some trees...and I told Emily to get the jerry cans in the back of the Jeep. I told Thomas to hurry up as we both got back into the truck... And then..." I trailed off, feeling the blood drain from my face. I closed my eyes tightly.

It was Effy who spoke next. "They move in the daylight, don't they?" She said, in her cautious monotone.

Sadly, I nodded. "One of those creatures...rose up behind the trees. I yelled at Thomas to run as I started the engine, and as he was running...it _got_ him." I said. "Skewered him right through the chest." The words fell from my lips in a hoarse whisper as the vivid memory of his arms and legs flailing in spasms as he died played in my mind.

"We_ barely_ made it out." Emily said, quietly. "Bristol is gone."

"Oh my god." Gina said. "You were right."

"I'm sorry." I said.

"It's _not_ your fault, Blondie." Cook said.

"That's what I told her." Emily said. "She wasn't to know those things were going to be active."

"Emily's right." Katie said. "Don't blame yourself. You did the right thing."

"Letting Thomas be killed?"

"_No_..." Katie said. "Thinking ahead."

"Oh, well...thanks. You'll have to forgive me, though, none of the food we picked up was organic or healthy." I said, sarcastically.

"Bitch." Katie snapped.

"_Fuck_ you!" I snapped back.

"ALRIGHT!" Gina said. "Let's not argue about what we can't change, girls."

I stood up. "Someone want to give me a hand to get this stuff out of the truck?" I said, walking back towards it.

* * *

A few hours later, we had everything out of the truck, and with a little direction from Gina, we had made a nice little makeshift camp for ourselves. Emily was still sticking to me like glue for some reason, but I didn't seem to mind so much, I guess going through terror like what we had been through unites people in some way. Once we had unloaded everything, and Effy was taking the last of the water containers to the small storage area Gina had set up, I sat on the folded out ledge of the Jeep and stretched my neck. I closed my eyes, exhaling slowly, enjoying a small moment of peace, until Emily cleared her throat beside me. I opened my eyes, and looked over at her. She had tied her hair up, and had a spot of dirt on her nose, which in reached up and rubbed off. She looked at me strangely.

"_Dirt._" I said.

"Oh." She replied, with a shy smile. "Gina is making tea if you want some."

"Mmm. Tea would be good, right now."

"Well, go get some, then!" She said, nudging me gently.

"What about you?" I asked, getting off the ledge.

"Don't worry about me. I've got something I want to do." She said. "But, you go...you look like you could do with something to ease you a little."

I nodded. "Ok. Don't stray too far though, yeah?"

She shook her head. "I won't."

I walked towards the fire, and Gina looked up at me with a smile. "Tea, love?"

"Yeah. Sounds good." I said, sitting down on an upturned crate that Cook had also found while looking for wood. Gina poured me a cup of tea and handed it to me, and I relished the warmth of it in my hands.

"How are you feeling?"

"A little better." I said, once it had sipped the warm tea. It had no milk, but it didn't seem to matter much. It was the warmth of it working its way down to my stomach that mattered the most. "At least we are safe...for now."

Gina nodded. "It's really _gone,_ then?" She said. "Bristol."

"I'm afraid so, mum." I replied. "Emily and I were lucky to get back here alive. Luckier than Thomas, anyway."

"He was a lovely boy." Gina said. "So gently spoken. He told me last night...about his mother and his siblings. He was very worried about them."

"Yeah, that's what he told us. And that was before the world went to shite."

The two of us were silent for a few minutes, before my mum spoke again. "Naomi?"

"Yeah?"

"In case something happens... I want you to know...no matter what I've put you through... The lodgers... Worrying whether I'd be home from a protest... I've _always_ loved you. I hope you know that."

I looked at the older blue eyes that mirrored mine and nodded. "Yeah, I know." I said. "I love you too, mum. Always have. Even when I was being a moody twat."

Effy sat down and came to join us. "Well, the good news is, you guys picked up enough food to last us longer than just a couple of days."

I nodded. "Thomas's life was worth it, then?"

"If you want to put it that way."

"And Cook says he saw a patch of trees while he was out collecting firewood...at the other end of the tunnel. I think we should block up one end of the tunnel, if we can. It'll cut down on the wind going through it, anyway. It might get pretty chilly around here at night."

"What time is it?" I asked.

"A little after two." Effy said. "We are a ways from anything major. And this tunnel is fairly hidden. I don't think we are in any real danger here, but..."

"It's a good idea, love." Gina said. "I might go and see if he needs a hand scouting around."

"Be_ careful_. Don't stray too far. If you see or hear anything..._ Run_. Don't stop until you get back here." I said.

"I will, dear." She said, getting up and walking away.

I finished my cup of tea and placed it onto the gravel beside me. " How are you doing, Eff?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Same as everyone else, I guess. World having gone to shit and all." She said. "I have a bad feeling."

"Yeah?"

She nodded. "Tony. And Anthea."

I sighed. "I'd like to be optimistic for you, Eff. I really would."

"They were in Barcelona, Naoms." She conceded.

"I know." I said. "I'm sorry."

"Can't be helped."

"There are a lot of old buildings there, though... Maybe they-"

"_No_." Effy stated. "You know how I get with feelings, Naomi. The hunches."

I looked at her, noting the look of realisation in her eyes. Truth was, I did know about the feelings she sometimes got, and that more often than not, she was right. "_Oh_."

"Yeah."

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Not much I can do about it. I've got to deal with it like Emily and Katie have to."

I nodded. "Right."

"Speaking of... Heads up." Effy said, nodding in the direction of the Jeep. I looked towards it to see Emily walking towards the both of us. "I'll leave you to it." She whispered, discreetly making herself scarce.

"Eff!" I said, as Emily's footsteps got closer. I turned to see her standing in front of me. I smiled politely. "Hey."

She returned my smile with a shy one of her own. "Hey. I've got a surprise for you."

"Oh?"

She held her hand out to me. "Yeah. C'mon, I'll show you." I took her hand and she pulled me up onto my feet, and I let her lead me to the back of the Jeep. She opened the back hatches, to reveal two pillows and a duvet spread out over the floor. "It's not much, _nor_ exactly five star...but... You were good with me last night, so... I wanted to give you a safe haven to sleep, too." She said. "I know it's not the same as your own bed, but..."

_Wow_, I thought to myself. "I love it." I said, climbing in and crawling towards the pillows. I laid down and saw that it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. "Thank you, Emily."

The blush that covered her cheeks almost matched her hair, and it was adorable, lit by the cab light of the Jeep itself. She climbed in behind me and shut the hatches, blocking out the heat while the pig stayed lit. She settled herself on her back next to me and tilted her head towards me. "I thought you would like it." She said, quietly. "I thought...that..."

My brow furrowed. "What?"

She sighed. "I thought we could use a space to ourselves. We've been through quite a bit, and..." She turned to me and shuffled closer. "Right now I seem to feel_ safest_ when you have your arms around me, so..."

"Oh." I said. Her arm slid around my waist, and I pulled her body closer to mine. It was strangely natural, how we just seemed to fold into each other. She felt so good against me, so warm, tender and alive... The both of us had seen so much death in such a short space of time that in this quiet moment, we clung to each other almost desperately. I felt her lips against my neck, softly kissing me. Again, so tender that in some way, it almost hurt.

"I should be thanking you..." She said, the quiet rasp of her husky voice against my neck.

"What for?" I asked.

"Saving my life. Keeping me together. Keeping me _safe_ like you promised." She said, as she looked into my eyes.

"I did what was right, Emily. I couldn't leave you to die." I said, kissing her forehead. "Any of you, really."

She shuffled closer. "_Christ_. I feel like I can't get close enough to you." She muttered. "I feel like I need you. _Sorry_...if I'm a bit clingy."

I shook my head, threading my fingers through her fringe. "Don't be. I...feel like I need you, too. It's_ comforting_, you know? It's like the world just became unforgiving, and even though I have my best friend, and my mum with me..." I sighed. "You being here too makes it all worth it."

"Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I whispered. "I'm glad you're here. I mean... I'm exhausted, and I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring to us, and I'm literally shit scared of that, but-"

Emily's lips met mine and she kissed me softly, probably to stop me from rambling, I couldn't tell. All I felt was the emotion running through it as her lips moved against mine, as her arms pulled me impossibly closer. It was without hesitation that I returned the kiss, the movement becoming deeper as a small fluttering began low in my stomach. Eventually, when the two of us lacked air, our lips parted, and Emily rested her head on my shoulder as she caught her breath. "Can I ask you something?" She said.

"Sure."

"Back in Chiswick...you told Katie you fancied me. Was that true...or where you just trying to keep things light?" Emily asked, her eyes searching mine.

I watched those eyes close as I lightly traced my fingertips down the side of her face, before leaning in to kiss her lips softly. "I was telling the truth." I said, softly, as her eyes opened again. "Bit hard to seduce you while the world is going to shit, though." I said, with a slight smirk. "I do fancy you. You're cute. And if the world was different, and we'd met in a club, I might've taken you home with me... Who knows? But now... I'm not going to say I don't, and it wouldn't be nice, because I do, and it would. I think I have as much a need as you do...to be near you."

"Yeah... I know what you mean. You have really beautiful eyes, by the way."

I smiled. "Oh, I think that's the nicest thing that's been said to me in the past few hours."

"Hmm." Emily murmured. "Your friend...Effy. She thinks something is going on with us, doesn't she?"

I sighed. "Effy sees things sometimes. It's like a gift she has. She's good with it, too. She knew I liked you... Back at Waterloo. I knew it too, but... There was_ so_ much going on, I was more concerned with getting us out of there safely."

"I know."

"Whatever happens happens, Emily. We feel safe around each other, that's a start. And it is rather nice having you in my arms." I said.

"Yeah, it's nice being in your arms. Comforting."

I paused, briefly. "Forgive me for asking... Wouldn't you rather spend time with Katie? I mean..."

"Seeing as she's the only family I have left?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Katie needs some time to herself when she is moody. She hasn't said anything, but I can tell she is, she's my twin... I don't really have to ask."

"Oh, you mean like how they say twins can sense each other?"

Emily nodded. "Yeah, it's not just hearsay. It's true."

"Right."

"Besides... I think she's jealous of you. That's_ why_ she snaps at you." She smirked.

"Jealous...of me?"

"Yeah... She gets jealous of those who she feels threatened by...she always has when it comes to me. She thinks you are going to take me from her."

"That's ridiculous!" I said. "We've only just met."

"Yeah, we both know that. But...she feels threatened easily. I think it's worse now, because... I'm all she has left." Emily explained. "She doesn't seem to understand that I'll always be her sister, and I'll always love her as long as I'm alive."

Silence fell between us as I held Emily close to me. It was nice to just share some peaceful downtime with her, even if we were uncertain about the future. It was like the literal calm in the storm... The tranquil island setting in the midst of the flood.

"It's peaceful." Emily whispered.

"Yeah." I replied, gently stroking my fingertips along her arm. "It is."

Emily's hand reached for mine, and our palms met. Her hand rotated and then her fingers slipped between the spaces in mine, and closed over the back of my hand. Her eyes met mine, and she was saying more with them than she could with words. I squeezed her hand tightly as she leaned closer and kissed me slowly, our joined hands falling between us as the tingly feeling inside me grew more. Her tongue slid across my lips, and I parted them to allow her entry, the soft warm muscle massaging mine. I lost myself to the interaction between us, and if I hadn't been lying down, I might have felt as though I was falling as the kiss deepened further.

I felt the soft vibration of her whimper into the shared kiss, and my head leaned against hers as our lips parted again, and my immediate unconscious action was to bite my bottom lip. "I really..._really_ like kissing you." I whispered, softly.

"I like kissing you, too..." Emily replied, her nose rubbing against mine.

I sighed, deeply. "Can we just freeze this moment? Stay here forever and forget the troubles of the outside world?" I said, quietly.

Emily smiled, as she closed her eyes. "Mmm...that would be perfect."

"Yeah...that was why I suggested it." I said, returning her smile.

Her smile faded, though, as she noticed movement outside the Jeep. "I don't think we are going to get that luxury, somehow..."

I sat up as a knock came on the Jeep window...

* * *

**A/N: I wonder who is ruining the tranquility?**

**Tune in next update to find out!**

**Until then...**

**~GN~ xo**


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